Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower

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The book ‘The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11’ written by Lawrence Wright is a very good, useful and informative piece of work. This collection of information and data concerning the horrific attack in New York on September 11, 2001 and the events leading up to the attack is not just a book for researching students or a scholar, but also for anyone who is interested in the infamous event. The work reiterates the difference between cultures and ideologies, and shows that unfortunately sometimes those differences result into terrible events that are neither forgotten nor changeable. It also displays that it does not take many people to create such terror and harm if they have the wrong mindset. Lawrence Wright’s ability to use substantial facts and interviews to convey this point of view is
Sayyib Qutb struggles with the differences between western and eastern lifestyle. Even though Qutb admits that he was not as religious as others, he still has a difficult time with accepting American culture. Qutb contemplates to indulge himself into the American temptations or to stay close to his current beliefs (Wright, 2006, p. 7,8,9). But the temptations that Qutb is referring to is not necessarily harmful, but looked upon badly by his country. For example the sexuality differences in America as opposed to a Islamic country (Wright, 2006, 15). To him and people with the same beliefs and ideology the Americans are in the wrong. And although it is not wrong to have a opinion, it is wrong to allow the differences to become more than just opinion. So what happens is that those who are radical have no limits and as a result 9/11 occurs. There are many reasons for the attack and it is hard to simply explain one reason being dominant or to try to quantify the influences, but it is no secret that the attack was in some way directed at just the idea of western

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