The remarks below were delivered earlier today at the 23rd annual convention of the Assembly of Turkish-American Associations, as part of a panel discussion titled “Reevaluating Democracy and Islam after September 11.”–Ed.

I MUST BEGIN by saying that there is nothing I would choose to revise, regarding my prior views of Democracy and Islam, in the aftermath of that terrible day, September 11, 2001. Perhaps because I do not come to this debate from an academic or government background, but rather as an author and journalist, my understanding of Islam has always been based on an encounter with reality, rather than speculations about abstractions. I learned about Islam in the Balkans–that is, in an environment suffused with the pluralistic traditions of the Ottoman empire.