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Commenting on the effects of Sayyid Qutb's writings in the Muslim world, the New York Times' Judith Shulevitz writes,
"…Anyone who doubts that literary critics can play a part on the bloody stage of history should consider the example of Sayyid Qutb. Qutb, born in Egypt in 1906 and university educated, was a Western-style literary critic until he devoted himself to Islam after spending two years in the United States, exposed to what he viewed as our decadence. He died in 1966, when he was hanged along with other Muslim radicals by the government of Gamal Abdel Nasser. Qutb's books of hard-line political theology have had a direct influence on the Saudi Arabian Muslim opposition1; the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria; the Palestinian group Hamas; the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon; Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian cleric jailed for several thwarted terrorist plots and linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; and the Iranian writer Ali Shariati, who helped foster the Islamic revolution in Iran."2
In a National Review article entitled "Religion is Not the Enemy," David F. Forte accurately describes the link between contemporary radical movements within the Muslim world and the writings of Sayyid Qutb:
"In other writings, I have asserted that this form of extremism has been inspired by the writings of influential modernist radicals, such as Sayyid Qutb of Egypt, who believe that virtually all Islam is in a state of unbelief and needs to be reconquered. Thus, in its modern form, Bin Laden's kind of extremism has much more in common with Stalin, Hitler, and Mao than it does with Islamic tradition. Like those state terrorists, Bin Laden is at war with his own people. And finally, I have boldly asserted that Bin Laden and his extremists are evil, pure and simple, and Islam is not."3
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Although Forte's understanding of "Wahhabism" is rather limited, unlike many other writers, he was able to distinguish between the methodology of Osama Bin Laden and the methodology of the "Wahhabis" when he said, "Osama bin Laden's version of Islam is different even from Wahhabism."
- abridged from the book: The 'Wahhabi' Myth
1 Shulevitz has accurately identified the ideological source of those who live within Saudi Arabia and are opposed to its scholars and creed as being the ideology of Qutbism, and not the native creed of "Wahhabism".
2Judith Shulevitz, Some ideas demand rebuttal, The New York Times, 21st October 2001.
3David F. Forte, Religion is not the enemy, The National Review, 19th October 2001.
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