On Wednesday morning, in the upper room of the Clay Street Learning Center, a group of Princeton seniors gathered to puzzle out the problem of Sayyid Qutb.
By: David Campbell
In an article last month in The New York Times Magazine, journalist Paul Berman described Qutb as al Qaeda’s Karl Marx, its intellectual hero and its guide.
The Egyptian scholar’s prison writings, a gigantic multivolume commentary on the Koran titled "In the Shade of the Qur’an," provided the powerful ideas behind fundamentalist Islamic terror like that witnessed on Sept. 11, Mr. Berman wrote.
In the Learning Center’s upper room, the discussion was cordial but at times heated. Most of the 10 seniors present on Wednesday joined this Islam class, which was in its fifth session, to gain some understanding of the religion in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks.
The class is being run under the auspices of the Evergreen Forum, an adult-learning program sponsored by the Princeton Senior Resource Center.
According to Pat Roberts, one of the participants, she has learned to distinguish mainstream Islam from the extremism that led to Sept. 11. And extremism, Ms. Roberts added, is not unique to Islam it’s present in all the world’s faiths.
"Muslims have gotten a bad rap," the 76-year-old Lawrence resident said. "Moderate Muslims have not really found an audience or the means to help non-Muslims understand what their faith is. It’s the fundamentalists who are making their voices heard more than the moderates.
"But there, again, I would be careful about that," she added. "There are plenty of fundamentalists of all faiths in Princeton who simply believe strongly in their faith as you see, it’s a very interesting topic."
Mary Ward, 74, of Princeton Community Village in Princeton Township, who lived for a while in Libya, agreed.
"After 9/11, I realized I knew nothing about Islam," Ms. Ward said. "I’ve found this class very stimulating because of the exchange of ideas in discussion."
Ms. Ward described the class topic as very complicated, but of one thing she was certain. "The terrorist ideas," she said, "are not mainstream Muslim ideas."
As with any culture, including our own, she continued, the Sayyid Qutbs of the world represent an irrational element that is always present and must be reckoned with.
The course, called "Islam and Western Civilization," is taught by Michael Tayyabkhan, a Muslim American and an engineer who has worked for Mobil Oil Corp., Union Carbide Corp., and has taught, run his own company and worked as a consultant for several firms in Bombay.
When Mr. Tayyabkhan was an adolescent growing up in Bombay, Mahatma Gandhi’s civil disobedience inspired the activist spirit in him that he exercises to this day.
Since Sept. 11, he has sought through the Islam class and through lectures in the greater community to address the cultural misunderstandings that can lead to world conflicts.
Ms. Roberts, an Episcopalian who attends Trinity Church, said the course has prompted her to review her own faith.
"I believe my faith urges me to be active, to understand the poor, the prisoners, the underprivileged, to work very, very strongly for nonviolence," Ms. Roberts said.
She said she has been struck by the strong union in Islam between the religious and the secular, unlike in the West a difference, Mr. Berman wrote, to which the Islamist philosopher Qutb took great exception. It is a difference Osama bin Laden and those like him have used to justify their terrorist acts, Mr. Tayyabkhan said.
"We are learning how very important it is to understand other cultures," Ms. Roberts said, adding, "and we don’t always agree. It’s never too late to learn and to contribute to bringing about changes in society."

