Historical roots of al Quaeda

garret points to a very interesting NY Times article titled The Deep Intellectual Roots of Islamic Terror by Robert Worth, which the Times oddly published in the Arts section. Worth explains the key concept behind the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and bin Laden’s group is that the Saudi royal family and Egyptian politicians, among others they target, are no longer Muslims (because they do not observe the Koran correctly) and therefore are legitimate targets. This way of thinking builds on the writings of the 1950s Egyptian revolutionary Sayyid Qutb and reaches back to a revered medieval intellectual named Ibn Taymiyya.