In “Creating Islamist phantoms: We dreamed up ‘al-Qaida’: Let’s not do it again with ‘evil ideology,'” Adam Curtis of The Guardian (thanks to Fjordman) posits that “we may not agree with its reactionary vision of the political use of Islam and the pessimistic, anti-progressive beliefs that lie at the heart of Qutb’s teachings, but it is essential to realise that there is no inherent link between these ideas and terrorism.”
Well, of course not. Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), the leading theorist of the Muslim Brotherhood, taught a totalitarian, expansionist ideology that viewed any political power other than Sharia states as illegitimate. If those who adhere to this ideology can attain what they want by peaceful means, then Curtis is right: they will do so, and there will be no terrorism. Sure, there will be a few small matters of subjugation of women and infidels, but who’s counting?
This underscores why it is so misleading to say that our fight is against “terrorism.” That leads to this kind of thinking — but would Curtis really consider the peaceful imposition of Sharia in Britain or anywhere else to be a benign development, as long as it involved no terrorism?