From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Tue 09 Dec 2003 - 01:11:39 GMT
Islam, though brutal during its first millennium, was, during the
Ottoman Empire, tolerant of other faiths and ways. However, two
authors introduced virulent mutations into the Muslim memeset that,
taken together, reversed this gradual mellowing and resulted in the
bloodthirsty and globe-conquering contemporary ideology of Al
Quaeda.
The first of these two authors was Abdu I-Wahhab (1703-1792)
of Saudi Arabia. He called for a purification of Islam, and a return to the
brutal and austere shari'a practices of the first century. However, this
counter-reformation was only directed towards the Muslim Ummah
(body of the faithful), and not towards the kufr, or infidels.
The second author was Syed Qtub (1906-1966) of Egypt, the
founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan al-Muslimun), the seed
group from which practically all current Islamofascist terror
organizations, in one way or another, sprang. He called for the
expansion by force of the Muslim Ummah to encompass the globe.
Without Qutb's addition, pure Wahhabism may have remained
internally focussed for an indefinite period. However, many fewer
shahids would have felt the call to kill and die for a more tolerant and
less extreme pre-Wahhabist Islam, so Wahhab's call for zealous and
fanatical regidity regarding the Sahri'a law was a necessary precursor
for Qutb's call to global jihad to gain committed adherents.
MILESTONES, Syed Qutb's Mein Kampf-esque call to arms published
shortly before his execution by the Egyptian government on charges of
sedition, may be read in an english translation in its entirety at:
http://www.youngmuslims.ca/online_library/books/milestones/index_2.a
sp
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