Let’s look at who’sbehind the radicalIslamist philosophywhich is the basisfor al-Qaeda.
What Is Wahhabism?By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 21st, 2007Below are excerpts from a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report updated and released on January 17th, 2007, entitled The Islamic Traditions of Wahhabism and Salafiyya. The report reminds us of who we are actually fighting, and who we are not.“The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and subsequent discussions of religious extremism have called attention to Islamic puritanical movements known as Wahhabism and Salafiyya.”Al Qaeda leaders and their ideological supporters have advocated a violent message that some suggest is an extremist interpretation of this line of puritanical Islam. Other observers have accused Saudi Arabia, the center of Wahhabism, of having disseminated a religion that promotes hatred and violence, targeting the United States and its allies. Saudi officials strenuously deny these allegations.Definitions“’Wahhabism’ generally refers to a Sunni Islamic movement that seeks to purify Islam of any innovations or practices that deviate from the seventh-century teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions. In the West, the term has been used mostly to denote the form of Sunni Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia and which has spread recently to various parts of the world.”In most predominantly Muslim nations, however, believers who adhere to this creed prefer to call themselves “Unitarians” (muwahiddun) or “Salafiyyun” (sing. Salafi, noun Salafiyya). The latter term derives from the word salaf meaning to “follow” or “precede,” a reference to the followers and companions of the Prophet Mohammed.”Some Muslims believe the Western usage of the term ‘Wahhabism’ unfairly carries negative and derogatory connotations. Although this paper explains differences in these terms, it will refer to Wahhabism in association with a conservative Islamic creed centered in and emanating from Saudi Arabia and to Salafiyya as a more general puritanical Islamic movement that has developed independently at various times and in various places in the Islamic world.History of Wahhabism“Wahhabism is a puritanical form of Sunni Islam and is practiced in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, although it is much less rigidly enforced in the latter. The word “Wahhabi” is derived from the name of a Muslim scholar, Muhammad bin Abd al Wahhab, who lived in the Arabian peninsula during the eighteenth century (1703-1791). Frustrated by the moral decline of his society, Abd al Wahhab denounced many popular Islamic beliefs and practices as idolatrous.”Ultimately, he encouraged a ‘return’ to the pure and orthodox practice of the ‘fundamentals’ of Islam, as embodied in the Quran and in the life of the Prophet Muhammad. In the eighteenth century, Muhammad bin Saud, the ancestral founder of the modern-day Al Saud dynasty, partnered with Abd al Wahhab to begin the process of unifying disparate tribes in the Arabian Peninsula.”Since its emergence, Wahhabism’s puritanical and iconoclastic philosophies have resulted in conflict with other Muslim groups. Wahhabism opposes most popular Islamic religious practices such as saint veneration, the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday, most core Shiite traditions, and some practices associated with the mystical teachings of Sufism.”In the past, this has brought Wahhabis based in the Arabian peninsula and elsewhere into confrontation with non-Wahhabi Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims, and non-Muslims in neighboring areas. The first Saudi kingdom was destroyed by Ottoman forces in the early 19th century after Wahabbi-inspired warriors seized Mecca and Medina and threatened Ottoman dominance. Similarly, during the 1920s, Wahhabi-trained Bedouin warriors allied with the founder of the modern Saudi kingdom, Abd al Aziz ibn Saud, attacked fellow Sunnis in western Arabia and Shiites in southern Iraq, leading to political confrontations and military engagements with the British empire.Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia Today“Since the foundation of the modern kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932, there has been a close relationship between the Saudi ruling family and the Wahhabi religious establishment.”Wahhabi-trained Bedouin warriors known as the Ikhwan were integral to the Al Saud family’s military campaign to reconquer and unify the Arabian peninsula from 1912 until an Ikhwan rebellion was put down by force in 1930. Thereafter, Wahhabi clerics were integrated into the new kingdom’s religious and political establishment, and Wahhabi ideas formed the basis of the rules and laws adopted to govern social affairs in Saudi Arabia.”Wahhabism also shaped the kingdom’s judicial and educational policies. Saudi schoolbooks historically have denounced teachings that do not conform to Wahhabist beliefs, an issue that remains controversial within Saudi Arabia and among outside observers.”In September 2006, the State Department again designated Saudi Arabia as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ under the International Religious Freedom Act ‘for particularly severe violations of religious freedom.'”According to the State Department’s 2006 International Religious Freedom Report on Saudi Arabia, in spite of efforts by some senior Saudi government officials to promote tolerance of other religions and steps to remove some intolerant material from textbooks, members of the Shiite Muslim minority continue “to face political, economic, legal, social, and religious discrimination,” and non-Muslim groups are not granted freedom of worship, whether public or private.”[However] both harassment of citizens and non-Muslims by Wahhabi religious police (the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice) reportedly decreased during 2006.”
