The Philosopher of Islamic Terror (NYT login: FRITOPIE; password: FRITOPIE)
Imagine inhabiting a philosophy of life in which death, wisdom, piety, and immortality are the same. This is the world of Sayyid Qutb, and it provided the philosophical underpinnings for the attacks of 9.11. To dismiss this philosophy as evil incarnate and a bastardization of Islam might be accurate, but it would also completely miss the point. This philosophy of hatred and martyrdom is why find ourselves in the situation we do today. To dismiss Qutb's philosophy out of hand would be to admit that we have learned nothing over the past 18 months.
