Occidentosis: A Plague From the West
A forerunner of the Khomeini phenomenon, Al-i Ahmad came to Islamic traditionalism after a detour through Marxism and the progressive nationalism of the Mosaddeq movement. This biting criticism of the Westernization of Iran and other Eastern societies, written in the 1960s, was published posthumously in its complete form only after the revolution in 1978. The argument is shrill, often puerile, but it is a sobering one for Western readers, who have been hearing its echos on many occasions.
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