How a bad U.S. visit influenced ‘Osama’s brain’

Daniel Strieff Reporter • Profile • E-mail

LONDON — Four years after President Bush launched a war to oust Osama bin Laden from his hideout in Afghanistan, many are mystified how a polite son of a millionaire construction magnate in Saudi Arabia could turn into the world’s most wanted terrorist.

According to many experts, a clue may lie in the life and works of Sayyid Qutb, an Islamic ideologue who was radicalized after an overwhelmingly negative experience in the United States and later imprisoned and executed by Gamal Abdel Nasser’s regime in Egypt in 1966.

This train of thought suggests the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were born not in the mountains of Afghanistan, but by a culture clash with booming post-World War II America and in the torture-chambers of mid-century Egyptian prisons.

Although little known in the West, Qutb is famous in the Arab world, where his criticism of the West and calls for a new society based around pure Islamic ideals remain influential today.

Dubbed "Osama's brain" by the Weekly Standard magazine, Qutb was also a forceful advocate of jihad as a form of resistance to governments that claim to be Muslim but whose actions are judged to stray from true Islam.

Sajjan Gohel, director for international security at the Asia-Pacific Foundation, said Qutb’s ideas are crucial to understanding what Gohel calls “bin Ladenism,” which he defines as a transnational strategy involving a long-term guerrilla war of attrition bonded by a central ideology.

“Sayyid Qutb’s role in inspiring the Islamic resurgence of the last generation should not be underestimated or ignored,” Gohel said.

Fateful visit to U.S.
Qutb’s journey to radicalism started in 1948 when the Egyptian government sent the 42-year-old school inspector to study in the United States.

The time proved to be formative for Qutb, who had closely followed American popular culture and at the time viewed the United States as a somewhat positive influence, especially when contrasted with the European colonialism he had witnessed growing up in the Middle East.

But things started to sour even before he reached U.S. shores — Qutb was repulsed by an American woman’s drunken attempts to seduce him during his sea voyage and, once on U.S. soil, he was shocked at the racism he encountered in the still-segregated country.

Qutb found himself more and more outraged by what he saw as American greed — one example being the lush lawns of Greeley, Colo., where he studied. He also found moral dissipation, including in such seemingly innocent events as dances held in small-town churches.

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