"The theory and practice of jihad – bin Laden's foreign policy

"The theory and practice of jihad – bin Laden's foreign policy – was not concocted in the Pentagon; it is directly derived from the Koran and the hadith, Islamic tradition"


Over at Atlas Shrugs, Fjordman reviews the great Ibn Warraq's essential new book, Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism. A couple of highlights:

Amidst the praise he gives the West, Ibn Warraq warns that the "golden threads" running through this civilization - rationalism, universalism and self-criticism – can sometimes turn into liabilities: Rationalism can lead to sterile scientism, universalism to the loss of one's sense of belonging and limitless self-criticism to self-hatred: "US foreign policy has nothing to do with the deaths of 150,000 Algerians at the hands of Islamic fanatics. The root cause of Islamic fundamentalism is Islam. American foreign policy has nothing to do with the stoning to death of a woman for adultery in Nigeria. It has everything to do with Islam, and Islamic law. The theory and practice of jihad – bin Laden's foreign policy – was not concocted in the Pentagon; it is directly derived from the Koran and the hadith, Islamic tradition. But Western liberals and humanists find it hard to admit or accept or believe this. They simply lack the imagination to do so." [...]

Defending the West is a powerful tour de force through history. It is one of the sad facts of this age that intellectual frauds like Edward Said get so much attention, whereas true intellectuals such as Ibn Warraq do not get nearly as much as they deserve. If only more people read Ibn Warraq's books, we wouldn't be in as much trouble as we are.


That is absolutely true.