Many Americans have come under the impression that Osama Bin Laden's peculiar brand of fanaticism derives from the puritanical Wahabbi faith prevalent in Saudi Arabia. Not true. At least, not exactly.
Bin Laden's viewpoint derives from an Egyptian sect leader named Sayyid Qutb. Qutb was once a secular man of letters. Then he went to study in America in 1949 -- at a university in Greeley, Colorado, of all places.
A quiet town. A conservative town. A religious town.
But to Qutb, the place was a hotbed of sin like unto Las Vegas.
He attended a church social, and stood aghast at the typical shameless American hussy who knew that "seductiveness lies in the round breasts, the full buttocks, and in the shapely thighs, sleek legs -- and she shows all this and does not hide it." Or so he wrote later, in a book titled The America I Have Seen.
The fear that such wanton displays of seductiveness might spread beyond the borders of the United States caused him to scurry back to his homeland and initiate an extremely puritanical form of Islam. The threat posed by those round breasts and full buttocks somehow led him to conclude that the West was mounting "an effort to exterminate this religion" -- that is, Islam.
The Egyptians (then run by a quasi-socialist government we did not like) executed Qutb in 1965, but his teachings became even more powerful after his death. Qutbism helped to shape the Muslim Brotherhood, an underground group which made a bloody attempt to take over Mecca in 1979. This plot may -- or may not -- have had help from Osama's brother Mahrous. The Bin Laden family was rebuilding the mosque, and the conspirators managed to gain access to the holy place using Bin Laden trucks bearing special permits.
The plan failed, and the Saudi dynasty remained in place. But the country has never been quite the same. The royal family has given leeway to even the most extreme voices within their religious right. In Saudi Arabia, Democracy is forbidden, atheism is forbidden, socialism is forbidden, communism is forbidden -- Qutbism is the only "ism" granted freedom to criticize the status quo. For the rebellious -- and nearly all young men are rebellious -- it's the only game in town.
Thus originated the philosophy that gave rise to Al Qaida.
It all started when a shy foreigner at a church social in Greeley, Colorado saw some attractive American lasses and got a hard-on.
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