Michael Sells' expurgated Quran book selections give UNC students a false picture of Islam as a religion of peace. The book is not "provocative," it is a Saudi propaganda piece.
A specific Islamic sect is responsible for the Sept. 11 attack on America, the Wahhabis. All the suicide bombers were Wahhabis.
Students should know this much Islamic history: Around 1800 A.D., Wahhab preached jihad against infidels, which included all other Muslim religions, and was exiled as a heretic. He converted a minor tribesman, the ancestor of today's Saudi princes, to his new doctrine: The mass murder of civilians became a passport to Islamic heaven. The pilots in the Sept. ll attack treasured these Wahhabi passports, and they are preserved physical documents.
Using terrorism as a religious weapon, the Wahhabis took over what is now Saudi Arabia. Wahhab then launched an audacious attack against Turkey -- then the most powerful country in the Middle East.
The Wahhabi attack on America which murdered 3,000 Americans therefore followed the Wahhabi tradition. However, this is the only major Islamic sect where the murder of civilians is meritorious.
We can learn how to win the war on terrorism from Islamic history. After repeated defeats, the Turkish sultan called on his best general, the Egyptian Mohammed Ali. The Egyptian knew how to deal with the Wahhabi: He slaughtered them as easily as they had slaughtered unarmed civilians. The Saudi princes fled back to their tents in the desert and were minor players for two centuries. What we need is a Pentagon general who will do the job over again.
Irwin D. Bross
Amherst, N.Y.
