Wahhabi Extremist Islam, Promulgated by Saudi Arabia
https://www.humanreligions.info/islam_wahhabi.html
By Vexen Crabtree 2025
#fundamentalism #iraq #islam #islamic_extremism #montenegro #saudi_arabia #wahhabi
Wahhabi Islam was founded by Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1791) in Saudi Arabia1 in the mid-18th century2. It's an extremist form of Islam1,2,3. It calls for Muslims to return to a purer faith of the early centuries2,4,5 and discard culture, philosophy and traditions6,7. It is fundamentalist, focus on a direct and literal reading of the Qur'an3 and rejects the juridical schools and any developed thinking on how to apply Islam in the modern world2,4. "It is Wahhabism that motivated Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban"4. Wahhabism is outlawed in several Muslim countries including those as different as Iraq and Montenegro4. It is particularly responsible for the persecution of Sufi Islam in Saudi Arabia8. It is so well-funded by Saudi Arabia that not a single Muslim population goes unpressured by its radicalizing organisations2,3,9,10.
1. Founding of Wahhabism and Saudi Arabia
Wahhabi Islam arose In the mid-eighteenth century in Arabia with the Muslim scholar Muhammad ibn `Abd al-Wahhab2,3 (1703-1791)1,11. Calls for return to a puritanical past were common even before colonial takeover, and Wahhabi was a "typical" reformer7 but he came to form an alliance with Muhammad ibn Saud, the founder of the royal House of Saud, giving his ideas a longevity and power that they otherwise would not have had2 and making the movement fundamentally political3.9. They opposed the Ottoman Empire12 and declared Ottoman sultans to be apostates7, and used religious zealotry and Saud support to wage a war on the western Hejaz region of Arabia, controlled by the Ottoman empire. The result was the establishing of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 19321.
Just a year later, "an agreement was signed with Standard Oil Company of California allowing them to extract oil" leading to solid financial stability of the new country1. The Saudis maintained their authority by pumping "a great deal of money into a variety of radicalizing organizations"2 which gave them credence at home, and extended their power and influence. Wahhabi reform, oil and the Saud family together formed an unstoppable alliance, creating the Islamic world's most enduring stable theocracy.
“The kingdom's influence in religious affairs has much to do with oil. Over the past quarter-century, the outpouring of Saudi money to the world's mosques, madrassas and Muslim institutions has ebbed and flowed with the price of crude.”
The Economist (2008)9
2. Beliefs
#fundamentalism #islam #wahhabi
Wahhabi is credit with "the reawakening of conservative Islam"12. Its strict literalist approach to the theology of life results it being called as fundamentalist12. Its aim was to purify and renew Islam, rejecting modern elements5, traditional cultural elements and anything else not justifiable from direct textual readings.
“al-Wahhab [...] issued a call for a return to the pious ways of the forefathers, based on strict adherence to the Koran and the hadith. He objected to a variety of innovations and, particularly, imports from the non-Islamic world.”
"Bad Faith: The Danger of Religious Extremism" by Neil J. Kressel (2007)2
“Wahhabism is a call to return to a purer faith of the early centuries of Islam that is not subject to the next millennium of accumulated opinion or to modern innovations that seek to reinterpret the Qur'an and Hadith according to today's social norms.”
"The Price of Freedom Denied" by Brian J. Grim and Roger Finke (2011)4
“Wahabis and Salafis reject the importance of juridical schools, instead advocating a direct relation to the revealed Text. In their literalist interpretation of Islam, nothing must come between a believer and the Text. Customs, culture, Sufism, and so on: everything must be gotten rid of. [...] Practice boils down to the literal interpretation of the revealed Text, with no recourse to the historical contributions of the various juridical schools.”
"When Islam and Democracy Meet" by Jocelyne Cesari (2004)3
“Abd al-Wahhab was a typical Islamic reformer [who proposed] returning to the Koran and the Sunnah, and by vehemently rejecting medieval jurisprudence, mysticism, and philosophy. Because they diverged from this pristine Islam, as he envisaged it, Abd al-Wahhab declared the Ottoman sultans to be apostates.”
"The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam" by Karen Armstrong (2000)7
3. Extremism
#afghanistan #extremism #fundamentalism #islam #islamic_extremism #saudi_arabia #wahhabi
Wahabi Islam is puritanical and extremist1 and has inspired and spread extremism throughout the Islamic world2. Accepting the teachings of the puritanical preacher Ibn Taymiyya of the 14th century, Wahhabi activists have destroyed cultural tombs and shrines of saints and holy men13, as did the Wahhabi-linked Taliban in Afghanistan; "it is Wahhabism that motivated Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban"4.
“Abd al-Wahhab was a typical Islamic reformer [creating] an aggressive movement, which imposed itself on the people by force.”
"The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam" by Karen Armstrong (2000)7
“In their literalist interpretation of Islam, nothing must come between a believer and the Text. Customs, culture, Sufism, and so on: everything must be gotten rid of. [...] Wahabism is characterized by an extreme hostility to any kind of intellectualized criticism of tradition. Mystical approaches and historical interpretations alike are held in contempt.”
"When Islam and Democracy Meet" by Jocelyne Cesari (2004)3
“[Wahhabism] fed into the development of extremist ideology in contemporary Islam. [It called] for a return to the pious ways of the forefathers, based on strict adherence to the Koran and the hadith. He objected to a variety of innovations and, particularly, imports from the non-Islamic world. [It produced] a doctrine that had much (but not everything) in common with the extremism of Qutb, the Muslim Brotherhood, and their offshoots.”
"Bad Faith: The Danger of Religious Extremism" by Neil J. Kressel (2007)2
The focus on purity and the ideal society means that Wahhabi communities come to be intolerant of anyone unlike themselves; remnants of Sufi Islam in Saudi Arabia are aggressively persecuted8
4. Saudi Arabia Pushing Influence
#egypt #extremism #indonesia #islamic_extremism #mali #montenegro #pakistan #saudi_arabia #uzbekistan #wahhabi
Because of its extremism and intolerance of other traditions, Wahhabism has been resisted "by many countries, ranging from Uzbekistan to Montenegro, Pakistan to Indonesia, and Egypt to Mali"4. But Saudi Arabia's wealth means that Wahhabi outreach programmes are almost limitless, and have flooded the world with Wahhabi schools, brochures, books, tutorials, educational programmes and schools, to the extent that it has become the background reference for all Sunni Islam.
“The Saudi kingdom has long been a fountainhead of jihadist radicalism, with martyrdom-seekers going on one-way tickets to such places as Chechnya, Iraq and the Twin Towers in America. [...] ... judges [are], like all those in the arch-conservative kingdom, schooled in the strict Wahhabist interpretation.”
The Economist (2008)10
“There are scholars who ascribe many of the pathologies of today's Muslim world, from violence to intolerance, to [... Saudi Wahhabism]. There is not a single significant Muslim population in the world that has been untouched by Saudi funding, says Reza Aslan, an American writer on Islam, and the effect has 'mostly been negative'.”
The Economist (2008)9
“The Saudis, as a consequence of their commitment to Wahhabi Islam, also pumped a great deal of money into a variety of radicalizing organizations.”
"Bad Faith: The Danger of Religious Extremism" by Neil J. Kressel (2007)2
“In the past two decades, the rivalry between Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, and Iran over control of the Muslim world has rapidly intensified. Within this atmosphere of competition, Europe and the United States have become crucial battlegrounds, as evidenced by the massive rise in the sum of petrodollars distributed in this part of the world. The proliferation of brochures, free Qu'rans, and new Islamic centers in Malaga, Madrid, Milan, Mantes-la-Jolie, Edinburgh, Brussels, Lisbon, Zagreb, Washington, Chicago, and Toronto; the financing of Islamic Studies chairs in American universities; the increase in the number of Internet sites: all these elements serve to facilitate access to Wahabi teachings and to promote Wahabism as the sole legitimate guardian of Islamic thought.
One must not, however, overestimate the influence of these movements. According to experts quoted in the New York Times, less than 25 percent of all Muslims in America who attend mosque follow Wahabi doctrine. However, in this case, influence may not be merely a matter of numbers. In a minority culture - lacking both institutions for religious education and the means by which to produce new forms of knowledge - the easy access theology that Salafism presents is one of the primary reasons for its great success. The widespread diffusion of Salafi teachings results in a situation in which even non-Salafi Muslims evaluate their Islamic practice by Wahabite standards. [...]
The modern heirs of this rigorist and puritanical line of thought in the Arabian peninsula (as well as in Syria, Jordan and Egypt) are known as Salafi. [...] The movement has succeeded in imposing their beliefs not as one interpretation among many, but as the orthodox doctrine of Sunni Islam. The considerable financial resources of the Saudi government have certainly also helped in creating this situation of religious monopoly.”
"When Islam and Democracy Meet" by Jocelyne Cesari (2004)3