[Pyro7480]

At the request of FReeper knews_hound, this is the full text of my term paper from a history class I took at the University of Delaware in the spring of 2002 titled "Islamic Radicalism in the Middle East." This class was offered in the aftermath of September 11th, to give undergraduate students an understanding of the history of Islamic fundamentalism, which obviously motivated the terrorist attacks. I found the class to be fairly-balanced, with little bias. The professor, a native of the Netherlands, is fluent in Arabic and Farsi, and is an expert in Middle Eastern history, particularly in Iranian history. He was a great teacher, in my opinion. After I saw the NYT article, I e-mailed him with the link to the article. He had already seen it, but thanked me for sending it to him.

Even though this paper was initially finished almost a year ago, I still consider it "a work in progress." I wrote it in a bit of a hurry, because of the workload I had that semester, and because a power outage at my dormitory while I was in the middle of writing it shortened the time I had to write it. I am considering using it for my graduate school entrance applications, so I am planning on rewriting it, using footnotes instead of in-text citations, and to make sure that there is no question of improperly paraphrasing the source material (even though the professor graded it and saw no problem - I want to cover my bases).

I hope this article proves educational to those seeking knowledge of the roots of Islamic radicalism. As knews_hound said, it is less verbose than the NYT article, and is not really analytical. It wasn't the point of the assignment to be analytical, but to chronicle the history of a major figure or movement in the history of Islamic radicalism. Sayyid Qutb is probably one of the most important figures in the history of modern Islamic fundamentalist movements. His work is something that shouldn't be ignored by those who are concerned with the defense of Western civilization.

[Pyro7480]

PINGing the members who commented on the original NYT article threads!

[TomSmedley]

ping

[Pyro7480]

BUMP!

[BunnySlippers]

Thanks, and a BUMP!

[swarthyguy]

Bookmarked. Great material. Have you read Malise Ruthven's A Fury for God that has a decent summary of this guy?

[GOPJ]

What ideas can be used to fight these people. What ideas will allow them to exist in peace -- with anyone. Most wars in the world involve Muslims. What part of the ideas they hold are the most dangerous to our way of life -- to their way of life? Is compromise possible? Do you feel Iran is different and if so, why?

With the Russians we would sit down and push pawn to King four - they would respond with pawn to King four... While seeming different, both sides were chess players. With Iraq, we push pawn to king four, and they piss in the corner, then hit the chess board with an ax. Please share your insight.

[GOPJ]

What ideas can be used to fight these people. What ideas will allow them to exist in peace -- with anyone. Most wars in the world involve Muslims. What part of the ideas they hold are the most dangerous to our way of life -- to their way of life? Is compromise possible? Do you feel Iran is different and if so, why?

With the Russians we would sit down and push pawn to King four - they would respond with pawn to King four... While seeming different, both sides were chess players. With Iraq, we push pawn to king four, and they piss in the corner, then hit the chess board with an ax. Please share your insight.

[Dajjal]

Excellent paper! Thanks for posting it!

[Stultis]

bookmark

[knews_hound]

Re-BUMP