I posted this elsewhere but thought I would re-post it here.
The Guardian
”I will spell this out, because it has not been broadly assimilated. The most extreme Islamists want to kill everyone on earth except the most extreme Islamists; but every jihadi sees the need for eliminating all non-Muslims, either by conversion or by execution. And we now know what happens when Islamism gets its hands on an army (Algeria) or on something resembling a nation state (Sudan). In the first case, the result was fratricide, with 100,000 dead; in the second, following the Islamist coup in 1989, the result has been a kind of rolling genocide, and the figure is perhaps two million. And it all goes back to Greeley, Colorado, and to Sayyid Qutb.”
I have been researching Sayyid Qutb for several weeks after learning he was considered the father of radical Islam. He went to college in Greeley, CO in the 50’s and was disgusted at what he thought was the excesses of American culture, vulgarity materialism and promiscuity. Now if those excesses were on full display in Greeley Co in the 50’s you have to wonder how low his “shock and disgust” meter was set.
Actually, from my limited research Qutb was convinced that America’s style and dazzle would blind people from the real height of civilization – and this is the most important bit – which in his mind began in the 7th century with Muhammad and reached it’s peak Middle Ages through victories of the Muslim Armies. And a direct line of influence runs from Qutb to OBL and al-Zawahiri and from them to another Egyptian visiting the United States, Mohammad Atta.
Qutb’s gripes about the U.S. are important because it pretty much answers that stupid question “Why do the hate us?” Given his philosophy it was inevitable that he would come to view the western world in general and the U.S. in particular as the antithesis of what he held most dear, a return to the glories (his version, anyway) of Islam.
He theorized that the modern world is
jahiliyya, the age of barbarism that existed before Muhammad and only by strict adherence or application of the laws of the prophet will change that.
So nearly a thousand years of history became an offense caused by the crusaders and the Jews. So Qutb called for a holy war against
jahiliyya which is essentially all of the modern world.
Qutb was executed in 1966 in Egypt when he would not renounce his call for holey war. His brother moved to Saudi Arabia and continued teaching Qutb’s philosophy. One of his students was OBL.
I really try to temper my remarks and I must admit to some possibly overheated rhetoric, particularly on this thread recently that I regret.
(Ed. “Unlike OT’s understated lukewarm rhetoric????”
Lets not go there, he still thinks the MIBs are sizing him up for a cage at Gitmo)
I guess what I’m trying to get my arms around is what is it we are actually facing? Is the 1938 simile I’ve seen posted elsewhere legitimate? If we had been willing to use force against Hitler in 1938 could we have saved the Jews, Gypsies, etc?
And are there suitable similarities to help us make the choice now? I’m fairly certain that the bulk or Iranians don’t like the current direction their government is taking their country but what can they do to stop it?
In hindsight, the 1938 question is much easier but then history would have taken another track and some historian and "socially conscious" people would be complaining about precipitious action that might not have been needed.
Are the madmen in charge in Iran willing to trade 6 million Israelis for 6, 10, 20 million Iranians?
And if that were even thinkable would not the Israelis already plan to raise the ante to a level that even Ahmadinejad would be forced to think twice about?
I think we are living in perilous times made all the more frightening because a wrong decision here will have far-reaching and painful consequences.
I suppose it’s theoretically possible that an effective sanction program (There’s an oxymoron!) would have some effect on Iran but only if those two wild cards Russia and China joined in. Without them any sanction program is doomed and we’re right back where we started.
To try and remain even I'll just say I'm not sanguine about the outcome
