This is exciting....

This has nothing to do with our reading this week, but I am so excited that I'm going to blog about it anyway.

For my senior capstone in the psychology department, I am studying how the motives for religious fundamentalism can be understood psychologically. For this project, I ordered a book called Religious Fundamentalism: Global, Local and Personal by Peter Herriot. In this work he writes up a case study about Sayyid Qutb! Of course, I read this chapter first even though it comes about half way through the work, and I am really excited about what I found.

First of all, Herriot discusses Qutb's role in the Muslim Brotherhood, and provides interesting details, such as the fact that Qutb served as head of the Brotherhood's propaganda department. Herriot goes at great length to explain Qutb's ideas about jahilyahh and how this affected why people felt compelled to follow him.

However, my most exciting find from this chapter about Qutb is that Herriot cites an article written by Qutb called "The America I Have Seen" (1951) about his time in the United States. From this, I went on google and found his writings on his trip to America!!

They can be found at:
http://www.bandung2.co.uk/books/Files/Education/
The%20America%20I%20Have%20Seen
%20-%20Sayyid%20Qutb.pdf

I'm excited.