Comrade Hussein sent me this: "Regarding the Ibn Taymiyyah thing, it should be understood not merely as an
attempt to curry favor with the Saudis but also as a herald of what they want us to endorse: a version of Taymiyyan/Wahhabi Islam the object of whose radicalism and violence is only the enemies of the west. At the same time, it will be presented as an official version of Islam, which will help persecute, if not more, all minorities in the Islamic world while keeping that part of the planet living under reactionary regimes. But if most extremist movements do proudly adopt his writings, and his life testifies to at least one fatwa of slaughtering a whole group of civilians and selling their families into slavery, which was applied in actuality, how can he not be a symbol of extremism? If he is a symbol of tolerance, then Hariri is a symbol of eloquence."
attempt to curry favor with the Saudis but also as a herald of what they want us to endorse: a version of Taymiyyan/Wahhabi Islam the object of whose radicalism and violence is only the enemies of the west. At the same time, it will be presented as an official version of Islam, which will help persecute, if not more, all minorities in the Islamic world while keeping that part of the planet living under reactionary regimes. But if most extremist movements do proudly adopt his writings, and his life testifies to at least one fatwa of slaughtering a whole group of civilians and selling their families into slavery, which was applied in actuality, how can he not be a symbol of extremism? If he is a symbol of tolerance, then Hariri is a symbol of eloquence."
