Is the Arab world making a serious examination of social and political values that could lead to change?
I think there’s a reformation in the Arab and Islamic world and actually it started about 1991 or ’92 in Egypt. We were the targets of terrorism from the early ’80s up until the last terrorist attack in ’97. And we started to tell Islamic scholars in our part of the world: you have to speak out and explain the real meaning of Islam; you can’t leave the bully pulpit to extremists; they’re distorting our faith, this will ultimately be at our own expense. So we actually started this back home when we realized something had gone wrong here. The moderates who are truly faithful to Islam, they don’t feel a need to speak out. While the extremists are carrying the ball. So the answer to your question is yes to the transformation, but transformations take time. But I wouldn’t say it’s a transformation in the religion, per se, it’s transformation in the Islamic world. What manifestations might a transformation take? Many, many things. Take gender issues, for example. The last 10 years we’ve made
