Muslim Brotherhoods founder dissected

http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2006/february/presence.php?page=1

Found this on Little Green Footballs. A must-read for anybody who wants the answer to 'Why do they hate us?'

"But the last paragraphs of Qutb’s American memoir suggest just how far outside normal discourse his mind was wont to stray. After noting the stupidity of his Greeley neighbors, who failed to understand his dry and cutting jokes, Qutb writes: “In summary, anything that requires a touch of elegance is not for the American, even haircuts! For there was not one instance in which I had a haircut there when I did not return home to even with my own hands what the barber had wrought.” This culminating example of inescapable barbarism led directly to his conclusion. “Humanity makes the gravest of errors and risks losing its account of morals, if it makes America its example.”
Turning a haircut into a matter of grave moral significance is the work of a fanatic."

Mr Von Drehle could have been much harsher on Qutb. This genius was actually enrolled at a university! How did he make it through any of his courses, with logic and judgement drunken frat boys could exceed without effort?

Its not hard to imagine, though, how galling it must be for men like Qutb, who believe that Islamic culture, art and religion are the pinnacle of human civilisation to see how little interest anyone outside the Muslim heartlands has in it- unlike America, whose culture, religion and clothing are mimicked all across the globe. I think I know the root of the rage- its the rage of those who want their Koran, their prophet, their rules and their clothes to be loved by the world, and the world just won't cooperate. No matter how many heads they hack off, no matter how many lawsuits they use to strong arm their critics, no matter how many hostile filmmakers they stab to death, they just can't get us to love them. They are still the 7th century throwback losers that they always were, and America is still the great beacon of hope and optimism. It must be a real bitch.

And when the forces of hope and optimism mobilise against those of bitterness and envy, there will only be one winner.