| Wahhabism The Saudi Solution Islamic fundamentalists consider those who do not subscribe to a literal interpretation of the Koran and the words of the Prophet to be in error. Those in error are considered heretics therefore not members of the Ummah. This, in part, explains Al Qaeda’s indifference to killing other Muslims in furtherance of its goals. The modern mainstream Muslim fundamentalist doctrine is a product of the mind and the energetic religious commitment of the revered and reviled Islamic scholar Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Whahhab (1703-1792). Ibn Abd al-Whahhab did not believe in riddles. Religious decrees from humanity’s alleged all-powerful invisible friend are filled with riddles. Gods love riddles. This is why, in the end, religious law is what a community of believers accepts as the answer, or answers, to one or more of their God’s riddles. For Ibn Abd al-Whahhab and the community of believers that adheres to his teachings, a god of Allah’s stature is a serious god not given to wasting his time with riddles. If revealed scripture prior to the Koran contained riddles it was because the Prophets — from Moses to Jesus — got it wrong. Abd al-Whahhab blamed, what he perceived as a general decline in morals in Arabian society on innovations in the practice of Islam; innovations which included distorting Allah’s precise and clear instructions to justify what he considered unacceptable behaviour. An example involving war on unbelievers, the Verse of the Sword, verse 9:5 which is said to supersede all other verses on the subject of war and peace. 9:5 Then, when the Sacred Months (these are the four months during which war was prohibited in pre-Islamic times) are over, kill the idolaters wherever you find them, take them [as captives], besiege them, and lie in wait for them at every point of observation. If they repent afterwards, perform the prayer and pay the alms then release them. Allah is truly All-Forgiving, Merciful. For Abd al-Whahhab and his followers the Verse of the Sword is a declaration of war, a universal war, a holy war, a jihad against all unbelievers, the real bloody deadly thing, not a metaphor for a jihad of the spirit! The Saudi Arabian flag with a sabre underneath the Muslim declaration of faith underscores this understanding.
The same for the Encyclopedia of Islam: “In law, according to general doctrine and in historical tradition, the jihad consists of military action with the object of the expansion of Islam and, if need be, of its defence.” The same for verse 4:76; in this revelation Allah does not divide humanity into believers and unbelievers who fight make-believe battles for the control of the mind and body of the other half, but real battles where real blood is shed! 4:76 Those who believe fight for the Cause of Allah, and those who disbelieve fight on behalf of the Devil. Fight then the followers of the Devil. Surely the guile of the Devil is weak. What Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Whahhab preached became known as Wahhabism. John L. Esposito author of Unholy War; Terror in the Name of Islam (Oxford University Press) describes Wahhabism this way: Wahhabi theology sees the world in white and black categories—Muslim and non-Muslim, belief and unbelief, the realm of Islam and that of warfare. They regarded all Muslims who [do] not agree with them as unbelievers to be subdued (that is, fought and killed) in the name of Islam.” One of the first to embrace Wahhabi theology was Muhammad Ibn Saud (d. 1765) a local Arab tribal chief. Ibn Saud used the ultra-conservative Wahhabi movement, still according to Esposito, “to legitimate (sic) his jihad to subdue and unite the tribes of Arabia, converting them to this puritanical version of Islam”. Ibn Saud still serves as an example for the current rulers of Saudi Arabia who, like their honoured ancestor, look to the teachings of Ibn Abd al-Whahhab for guidance. Wahhabi theology demands a non-stop active campaign to establish Allah’s kingdom on earth. The believers are not expected to give up the fight until not a single unbeliever, with the possible exception of Christians and Jews who have agreed to meekly pay the right-to-live tax (the jizya). That campaign can take two forms, according to the Koran. A believer can campaign in person and kill and die in the cause of Allah, or use his wealth to advance the cause. 61:11 Believe in Allah and His Messenger and struggle in the Cause of Allah with your possessions (wealth) and yourselves. That is far better for you, if only you knew. The Ottoman Empire, in 1818, put a stop to Saudi ambitions to spread their fundamentalist version of Islam by force. Saudi Arabia today does not have the military might, Al Qaeda notwithstanding, to spread its puritanical, backward-looking version of Islam by force, but it does have the money, and the Koran does say that spending your money (wealth) to spread Islam gets you a free pass into heaven, all is forgiven. 61:12 He will then forgive your sins and admit you into the Gardens, beneath which rivers flow, and into fine dwellings in the Gardens of Eden. That is the great triumph. With the discovery of oil and the wealth that came with it, the House that Muhammad Ibn Saud built has been able to spread the word far and wide by funding Islamic schools on the Wahhabi model, the most notorious being in Pakistan. This Islamic country is too poor to fund its own school system and must accept Saudi money and the conditions that come with it, even if it means more Taliban. To paraphrase Lenin, who is quoted as saying that “the Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them", "the West by buying Saudi oil is paying for its destruction." Lenin's boast remained an unfulfilled promised because of a determined, intelligent, mostly honest leadership and an informed citizenry that understood what was at stake and was willing to make the necessary sacrifices. After 9/11, it was discovered that nineteen of the twenty hijackers were from Saudi Arabia; merciless young men raised on a steady diet of Wahhabism. After 9/11, the Americans were in a perfect position to demand reforms from the Saudi Princes, including stopping the export of an ideology committed to their destruction. Instead, immediately after the identity of the murderers were confirmed, they spirited Saudi Princes on American soil to safety and attacked Saudi Arabia’s nemesis, Iraq, a country which had nothing to do with the horrific death of three thousands innocent men, women and children; making their deaths and the tens of thousands that came during and after the invasion pointless, adding insult to injury. When a country watches thousands of its citizens brutally murdered and looks the other way for fear of offending a country on which, because of its short-sightedness and lack of imagination, its economy is dependent, what hope is there that Wahhabism, under Saudi Arabia's surreptitious encouragement, will not ultimately triumph. ------------------ There is another plausible explanation for the billions spent by the Saudis to support madrassas that teach Wahhabism around the world. The Saudis, by being in charge of Mecca and other holy sites of Islam, are literally in possession of an inexhaustible gold mine whose output increases as converts to Islam increase, therefore, the Saudis have a vested interest in spending their oil wealth in the propagation of Islam around the world before the oil runs out.
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