Gems of Islamism

Hi There!

Are you interested in what inspired the people who blew up the World Trade Center Towers? What makes bin Laden, his al-Qaeda network, and their "franchises" tick? Want to know more about the movement known as Political Islam or Islamism? What do they believe? What do they want? Why do they do what they do?

I'm Bud Swenson and I'd like to welcome you to my Website, Gems of Islamism!

Here at Gems of Islamism we'd like to share with you our dissections of some of the books/pamphlets/speech quotes of Islamists we've read.

	So along with my hard-working staff, I've gone over Milestones, the enormously influential tract by Sayyid Qutb. Islam : the Misunderstood Religion, by his brother and publicist Muhammad Qutb .... (and brand new!) Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Government and other works ... and made given some other assorted commentary (especially on the Iranian Revolution).
My able assistants on their way to an important conference

Ours is a humble, amateur and very part-time operation (sorry about all those annoying pop-ups!). More of a little niche supplement to the places like memri.org with their multi-lingual pros (ya, I know they're Zionists, but their translations tell a lot). Still, we hope to make a contribution to the understanding of Islamism and Jihadism. So please bear with us as we are still "under construction" working on our page.

FAQ

What do you mean by Islamism? Is that just a fancy word for Islam? Or for Muslims who believe in sticking up for their rights?
Islamism is the ideology that holds Islam is not just a religion, but a complete political system based on traditional Islamic law. Islamists tend to compare Islam with Socialism and Capitalism rather than Christianity or Hinduism. Not all Muslims are Islamists, and not all Islamists support terrorism, but the original Islamists (Syed Abul-Ala Maududi, Sayyid and Muhammed Qutb) held

that Western civilization was not just inferior to Islamic government and culture, but utterly and irredeemably corrupt and worthless, and that

the path to greatness for Muslims was a return to the early decades of Islam (around 622-644 AD), when Muslims (they claimed) strictly followed Islamic law and were filled with ardor to kill and die for Islam.

The Qutb brothers in particular claimed the West was obsessed with destroying Islam, but also doomed to fall to it. Needless to say, believing all this does not make you a terrorist, but it does make terrorism a much more defensible proposition.

Do you people think you're scholars or something?
Our stuff is written at the level of readers who want something beyond stories on 'Islam Today` they've read in TIME magazine or the Sunday newspaper, but who aren't going to or can't spend the time plowing through primary sources. Of course it's really intended for anyone who finds it on Google.

Who are you people anyway?
Not telling. What we will tell you is where we found the information we post. You won't have to take our word for anything. You'll be able to look it up and see if we're telling the truth.

Do you people read Arabic? Farsi? Urdu? .... I didn't think so! Why should we pay any attention to you and your secondary sources? You don't have the real understanding of what these fine Islamists have to say!
It's true we are using literature written in English. But the translations of Milestones, Islam : the Misunderstood Religion and Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Government are by supporters of those authors. Since a large number of the Islamists in Europe and North America were born there and read English better than Arabic or Urdu, its likely they read an English translation of Milestones or Islam : the Misunderstood Religion, not the original Arabic.

Where are you anyway? I want to send you ... a little something.
Due to the sensitive nature of some of the editorial comments on this site, we'd rather not get into that. You can email us if you want though.