Suleyman Ahmad Schwartz
Stephen Schwartz (born 1948) is an American author and noted foreign policy expert. He is a convert to the Naqshbandi order of Sufi Islam. He does not generally use his adopted Arabic name Suleyman Ahmad Schwartz, since he has published widely under his born name, although he has used the term Suleyman Ahmad Stephen Schwartz to sign his conversion letter. Like many American neoconservativess, Schwartz started out on the far left politically, and his mother was a member of the Communist Party. After serving on the staff of the San Francisco Chronicle, Schwartz became a reporter for the Weekly Forward, a Jewish-oriented publication based in New York City. He later worked at Voice of America. Schwartz has written several books on foreign affairs, most notably The Two Faces of Islam: Saudi Fundamentalism and its Role in Terrorism, which condemns the influence of Wahhabism and argues for Sufism. He is also a regular contributor to such conservative magazines as the National Review, The Weekly Standard and Frontpagemag. Schwartz's credentials as a scholar of Islam, and particularly of Wahhabism have been attacked. For example, Amir Butler notes in Understanding Stephen Schwartz that Schwartz described as Wahhabist both the Sunni Hamas, and the Shia Hezbollah. In the February 22, 2005 edition of the Weekly Standard, Schwartz sparked considerable controversy with an article he authored therein entitled The End of the Counter-Culture, in which he harshly criticized avant-garde writer Hunter S. Thompson, who had committed suicide two days earlier. The article was attacked mercilessly by many liberals, particularly Marc Maron and Mark Riley, who co-host the Air America Radio program Morning Sedition. Schwartz has written on the Spanish Civil War.
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