Bin Laden not top Islamist thinker - U.S. study (Reuters)

[Eugene]

Bin Laden not top Islamist thinker - U.S. study
15 Nov 2006 18:26:31 GMT
Source: Reuters

-snip-

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden may be the leading symbol of global
Islamist militancy but the al Qaeda leader wields less influence over Islamist ideology
than more obscure religious thinkers, according to a new study issued on Wednesday.

The study also found that Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's second-in-command, appears
to be insignificant among Islamist intellectuals despite his image as a driving force
behind the al Qaeda network.

The Militant Ideology Atlas, compiled by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point,
instead showed Palestinian cleric Mohammed al-Maqdisi as the most influential living
Islamist thinker.

Maqdisi, reportedly a mentor to the late al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
is currently in prison in Jordan.

-snip-

The West Point study said Islamists who advocate violence could be discredited by Middle
East clerics who subscribe to Salafism, the form of Islam from which al Qaeda and other
militant groups draw their legitimacy. Violent militants are a minority within the Salafi
community.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N15452982.htm

[Andreas Baader]

1. Although he's been dead for decades...

I think Sayyid Qutb, the author of In the Shade of the Koran and other works, and the driving force of the Muslim Brotherhood was and still is the most influential Muslim thinker.

Most accounts of bin Laden don't have him as a ground breaking or well regarded Muslim scholar. His claim to fame, really is money raising through his contacts with the Saudi Royal Family and his relatives in the bin Laden Construction firm.

[GDAEx2]

2. Bin Laden has always been the money guy

not some ideologue.
if he thinks someone has an idea worth funding, he underwrites it.

[greyl]

3. The difference between Muslim and Islamist:

BILL MOYERS: Islamist. Help us to understand the distinction you make between Islam and Islamism.

MARTIN AMIS: Well, Islam is the great religion that has been the donor of countless benefits to mankind, that led the world in civilization throughout the Middle Ages, gave us algebra and all kinds of intellectual breakthroughs of all kinds, plus an example of tolerance that nowhere else in the world could offer at that time. A level of tolerance and respect for justice. That is Islam.

Islamism started after the First World War when the last empire was lost, the Ottoman sided with Germany in First World War. And then, you know, if you can stand way back from it all. You can imagine Islam very much reduced. It's coming towards modernity. And instead of advancing down that road, it turned round and the great leap backwards began. That's Islamism. But when Islamism got going instead of saying, "Okay, to come into modernity, we need to put slightly less emphasis on Islam." And the great leap backwards said, "No, we would need total emphasis on Islam."

BILL MOYERS: Fundamentalism?

MARTIN AMIS: Yeah.

BILL MOYERS: That's what it is.
http://www.venusproject.com/ethics_in_action/Faith_Reason_Marg_Atwood.html