I don't have much time to elaborate on this. But this article talks about Sadiq Jalal Al-`Adhm's Self-Critique After the Defeat. It has recently been reissued. That book and other books by Al-`Adhm had great influence on me when I was a teenager. Over time, that influence has waned. I am more critical of the "self-critique" school of literature in the Arab world. Not for being defensive, or for being opposed to self-criticism but a critique of the self-critique literature is in order. I mean, if you look at some of it (Sharabi, `Al-Adhm, `Ali Al-Wardi, `Abdullah Al-Qusaymi, Al-`Afif Al-Akhdar, Adonis (the worst offender by far) you will find a lot of rehashing of the most vulgar of classical Orientalist cliches, etc. And most importantly, the works don't stand up to the scrutiny of social science standards dealing with any another region of the world.