User:RM395/Course/Encyclopedia comparisons/Luna002

I decided to compare an article from Wikipedia with an article from The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. In my history courses, I’ve studied a good deal about Sayyid Qutb, a founding thinker in political Islam.

Wikipedia specifically mentions Qutb’s anti-American stance. In terms of how much Qutb wrote, America was not his number one enemy. It reveals how America-centric Wikipedia is. Perhaps an Arabic article would present a better scope of Qutb’s influence, particularly as it influenced contemporary Egypt! (It was far more immediate!) But American contributors likely know of Qutb as a “pre-terrorist,” since yes, as many historians would agree, Qutb’s writings were quite influential for the terrorist organizations that have been responsible for violence in the United State (including 9/11)… but how quickly it seems we dismiss the violence abroad, or in their own countries.

The Wikipedia article is “semi-protected,” which probably is due to the controversy surrounding Qutb as a religious and political figure.

The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought focuses on the conflict between Qutb and Nasser’s regime. It was that conflict and his resulting imprisonment that resulted in Qutb’s increasing radicalization. He was greatly opposed to western influence, it’s true, but was more adamantly opposed to the condition of the state under Nasser. His anti-American stance, which the Wikipedia article focuses on, was only touched on. In my opinion, that paints a more accurate picture of Qutb because his greater significance globally is that of being a founding thinker in political Islam, not an enemy to “the land of the free.”