Madam, - The focus on Islam provided by Mary Fitzgerald's series "Under the Crescent" is welcome. But her article of July 7th allows the son of Abudullah Azzam to portray his late father as a freedom fighter and distance him from his bloody protégé Osama bin Laden.
This just won't wash. In Azzam senior's own words: "Jihad has been a fard'ain [ obligation] since the fall of Al-Andalus, and will remain so until all other lands that were Muslim are returned to us. . .Palestine, Bukhara, Lebanon, Chad, Eritrea, Somalia, the Philippines, Burma, Southern Yemen, Tashkent and Al-Andalus" . That last is Andalusia in Spain. Azzam, like al-Qaeda, wanted it "back".
In pursuit of such "liberation" Bin Laden quotes Azzam's endorsement of terrorism: "We are terrorists, and terrorism is our friend and companion. Let the West and East know that we are terrorists and that we are terrifying as well. We shall do our best in preparation to terrorise Allah's enemies and our own. Thus terrorism is an obligation in Allah's religion."
And if that does not worry you, try this: "History does not write its lines except with blood. Glory does not build its lofty edifice except with skulls. Honour and respect cannot be established except on a foundation of cripples and corpses."
Sayyid Qutb's very damaging views on jihad, martyrdom and the vanguard are dealt with fully in my book Al-Qaedaism, The Threat to Islam The Threat to the World, published by Ashfield Press in Dublin and Platin in Turkey.
Both Abdullah Azzam and Sayyid Qutb were central to the development of the ideology that is al-Qaedaism. The present murderous activities of al-Qaeda are fully in tune with both their beliefs and writings. - Yours, etc,
RICHARD F WHELAN, Brighton Hall, Foxrock, Dublin 18.