Islamic fanaticism and Egypt

Ed Jajko, a Middle East expert, writes: "Seconding Guity Nashat's message, and without addressing other problems in the highly compressed and erroneous history presented by El Pais, let me note a couple of the more obvious points: Nasser died a natural death in 1970, of a chronic ailment. He was defeated in the 1967 war, but survived the humiliation. It was Sadat who was assassinated, the standard reason being his visit to Israel, shaking hands with the enemy, and signing a peace treaty. The West did indeed shed tears for Sadat. There was soul-searching among the Arabs after the 1967 defeat, and the development of a literature on the subject. The conclusion reached by various of the writers was that the Arabs lost because they had strayed from true Islam.

Another point: It is extremely unlikely that Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is 50, was a pupil of Hasan al-Banna, who died in 1949".

Ronald Hilton - 11/2/01