I got an email from a reader the other day asking who I was, exactly. The anonymity is intentional. I like my privacy and since I’m not really trying to become a blog personality or to influence public policy in any way, I don’t feel any great obligation to identify myself.
I find that sometimes people who come across this blog wonder if I have any particular credentials for discussing the topics here. I don’t; My BA is in English, I don’t speak Arabic or Farsi or any other languages of majority-Muslim countries, and I’ve never been to the Middle East. My goal has been to see what I can learn from people who do have some expertise in these subjects, and to keep track of what I’ve come across here. It may be helpful to others, it may not, I don’t know.