I found the discussion to be fascinating, but there was one factor in the formation of the theoretical underpinnings for Al Qaeda that I found to be underdiscussed in the interview, and that is the influence of Wahhabism. Without Qutb, Wahhabism would have remained directed inwards, but without Wahhabism, Qutb would not have had a pious and puritanical Islam with which to compare and contrast the US culture that he encountered. Together, their contributions combine to create the present Al Qaedan stance that the entire globe must be subjugated to a religious regimen that consciously holds itself in the seventh century. Interestingly enough, the head of Al Qaeda, Usama Bin Laden, came from Saudi Arabia (like Wahhab), while Al Qaeda’s chief ideologue, Zawahiri, came from Egypt (like Qutb).
