ABSTRACT
A month after the events of September 11, Richard Kearney and I met with Jacques Derrida in New York for a prearranged discussion.2 A double column of smoke rising in the clear October sky and the burnt smell still hovering over the city kept reminding us of what had happened there. The discussion soon turned to the new situation the world had found itself in, to the war against an elusive and yet all-too-well-known enemy: terror. At least in two instances during the course of conversation, Derrida made a reference to his “Faith and Knowledge” (the only references to his work during the discussion), firmly locating the problem of terror within the context of religion and its, in this case, violent return.
