"In February 1949 [Sayyid] Qutb checked into the George Washington University Hospital to have his tonsils removed. There, a nurse scandalized him by itemizing the qualities she sought in a lover. He was already on guard against the forward behavior of the American woman, 'who knows full well the beauties of her body, her face, her exciting eyes, her full lips, her bulging breasts, her full buttocks and her smooth legs. She wears bright colors that awaken the primative sexual instincts, hiding nothing, but adding to that the thrilling laugh and the bold look.' One can imagine what an irresistible object of sexual teasing he must have been.
"News came of the assassination of Hasan al-Banna, the Supreme Guide of the Society of Muslim Brothers, on February 12, in Cairo. Qutb relates that there was a hubbub in the streets outside his hospital window. He inquired about the reason for the festivities. 'Today the enemy of Christianity in the East was killed,' he says the doctors told him. 'Today, Hasan al-Banna was murdered.' It is difficult to credit that Americans, in 1949, were sufficiently interested in Egyptian politics to rejoice at the news of Banna's death."
—Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
Posted by mesh at October 17, 2006 03:19 PM | TrackBack