Ayaz Amir

Ayaz Amir is a columnist for Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper. The following viewpoint, taken from a January 2003 column, describes the state of the Muslim world in the context of America’s war against terrorism. Amir argues that America and the West feel threatened by Osama bin Laden, leader of the terrorist group al-Qaeda, which was responsible for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. But he goes on to assert that bin Laden and his ideas pose a greater threat to the Muslim world than they do to the West. Bin Laden, Amir argues, is a leading representative of the view that Muslims must return to ideals of Islam’s past. Such views trap the Muslim world in intolerance and backwardness, Amir contends. The defeat of Islamic fundamentalism as represented by bin Laden and...