Recently, in Dallas, one elderly gentleman addressed me in a bookshop. He held a copy of my latest novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and examined the face on its cover, comparing it to mine. Then he said, nodding once as if to dip the brim of an imaginary hat: “So tell me, sir. Why do they hate us?”

Talk about why so many Muslims hate the US these days, and you’ll hear plenty of self-flagellation. Part of the reason people abroad resent the US is something Americans can do very little about: envy.

But there is another major reason for anti-Americanism: the accreted residue of many years of US foreign policies. These policies are unknown to most Americans. They form only minor footnotes in US history. But they are the chapter titles of the histories of other countries, where they have had enormous consequences. I observed one such obscure episode. In 1980, Lahore was a sleepy and rather quiet place. Pakistan’s second-largest city was still safe enough for a 9-year-old to hop on his bicycle and ride around, unsupervised.

But that was about to change. Soviet troops had recently rolled into Afghanistan, and the US government, concerned about Afghanistan’s proximity to the oil-rich Persian Gulf and eager to avenge the humiliating debacle of the Vietnam War, decided to respond. President Ronald Reagan offered billions of dollars in economic aid and sophisticated weapons to Pakistan’s dictator, General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq. In exchange, Zia supported the mujaheddin, the Afghan guerrillas waging a modern-day holy war against the Soviet occupation. With the help of the CIA, jihadist training camps sprung up in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Soon Kalashnikov assault rifles from those camps began to flood the streets of Lahore, setting in motion a crime wave that put an end to my days of pedaling unsupervised through the streets.

... contd.