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510dale f. eickelman (1996)DFE: Did you return with your wife and child in 1964?MS: No my wife was still a student. She joined me after she finishedher studies in 1965. Unfortunately, she did not bring our son,Leonid, with her. She was a pioneer, the first or second Russianwife to come to Syria. She lived here one year and couldn’t standour different environment. Finally we agreed to divorce withouta quarrel. I told her, ‘Keep Leonid because you are the motherand he will be happy with you. It would kill you if I kept himhere. I still provide for our son. It’s my obligation.’ Two monthsafter my first wife returned to Russia, I married my present wife,‘AzÊza.DFE: Were you active in politics or discussion circles when you returned toSyria?MS: In politics no, but discussion circles yes, on Arabness, #uråba,until 1967.DFE: Why just 1967?MS: The 1967 war had an impact on all Arabs in different ways,but it affected the consciousness of us all. I was then twenty-nineyears old.DFE: When did the idea to write The Book and the Qur"an first come toyou?MS: The project began to form in my head after 1967. I becameconvinced that our problem was in the Arab understanding ofthought and society. The problem was ourselves, not America orthe West. I was convinced of that.DFE: Did you intend from the outset to develop new interpretations of Islam?MS: Yes. I wanted to understand Islamic culture thoroughly, to seewhere we went wrong in order to correct our consciousness.There was an incident which was very clear and upsetting to me.At the first Friday sermon in Damascus after the Six Day War,the preacher in the mosque said that the reason for our defeatwas women. ‘[Our] women are cruel, naked’ (al-nis§" q§siy§t #§riy§t).The people sitting there in the mosque believed him. How canwe say that the disaster occurred because God was punishing us