Monday, January 22, 2007

Hugh Hewitt on Dinesh D'Souza

Hugh didn't like it: "...I found “The Enemy at Home” to be intellectually obtuse, poorly informed and, most importantly, an irresponsible exercise in putatively conservative bomb-throwing."

The most damning passage: "I have other complaints with the book. There are many instances that suggest either sloppiness or intellectual dishonesty on D’Souza’s part. To give us insight into the Jihadist loathing for American culture, D’Souza relies on the writings of the father of modern Radical Islam, Sayyid Qutb. Qutb spent two years in America and then returned to the Middle East thoroughly disgusted by American culture. He spent the rest of his life chronicling his hatred for America’s decadent society in assorted writings.

Here’s where D’Souza is dishonest or careless: He informs the reader that Qutb died in 1966. He fails to inform the reader that the time Qutb spent in America was between 1948 and 1950."

What was D'Souza thinking?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where did Qutb live during his two years in the U.S.?

Anonymous said...

According to Wikipedia, he was in Greeley, Colorado!

NPR has a story on Qutb and Greeley in 1949, "a very conservative town, where alcohol was illegal."

Anonymous said...

Yeah. The Greeley Tribune and the Mirror had a story on him and his time here at UNC. I was thinking about pick up D'Souza's book to see if he references Qutb's time in Greeley.

Stephen said...

Yeah. I knew that. One of the founders of Islamist fanaticism learned to hate the west by living in Greeley.

Anonymous said...

There was something about this in The Atlantic a while back.

Anonymous said...

It might have been The Smithsonian. I can't remember.

Tom said...

It was the Smithsonian, and he was mad at the U.S. because he couldn't get a good haircut--which, of course, is the fault of liberals.

Here is the article.

Stephen said...

I am wondering how I knew the story though. I know I didn't see it in the Smithsonian.