Is SAUDI ARABIA The Ideological and Financial Epicentre of Jihad?

Is SAUDI ARABIA: Ideological and Financial Epicentre of Jihad?
By R.
Upadhyay

Jihadi terrorism which is inspired by the 260 year old tradition
of extreme intolerance against the infidels flowing from the Saudi sponsored
ideology of Wahhabism is the most challenging menace for the modern world.

With fusion of religion and political control the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia derived religious legitimacy from being the custodian of the two holiest
shrines and controller of annual Haj pilgrimage and positioned itself to be the
authoritative voice of Islamic world. However, when it faced the challenge of
the Jihadi terrorists in its own land in late seventies of last century, it
started spending billions of dollars for spreading Wahhabism in different
countries with the objective to developing a clout in Islamic establishments.
Due to this persistent and ruthless endeavour Wahhabi thought and customs are
not only taking root among sizeable section of world Muslims but are also making
inroads even among the peace loving faithfuls.

A cursory glance to the
chronology of Jihadi terrorism gives an idea that empowerment to violent
Islamists is not an overnight development. It is in fact a logical culmination
of the politics of Arab imperialism which began after the death of Prophet
Mohammad, the founder of Islam who in his first Jihad in 622 AD gave a command
to his soldiers, “Fight and fear not, the gates of Paradise are under the shade
of sword” (‘The Arabs’ by Anthony Nutting, Hollis & Carter, London, page
23). Similarly, in his last address before death in 632 he said, “I was ordered
to fight all men until they say ‘there is no god but Allah’. (Prophet Mohammad’s
farewell address, March 632 – Islamic Imperialism – A History – Efraim Karsh,
Yale University Press London, 2006, page 2).

Interpreting these two
addresses as perpetual advice and Islamic sanction to the Arabic word Jihad
which literally means struggle, his companions launched war not for the cause of
Islamic spiritualism but for Arab Imperialism .Clubbing Islam with Arab culture
and transforming it into a cleverly designed violent political ideology, the
Arab warlords due to their mental make-up of ‘killed or be killed’ reminded
their followers that so long all the Qafirs (Infidels that is non-Muslims) do
not surrender to Islamic Empire and accept Allah as the One and Only God it is
the obligation of each Muslim within his abilities to launch Jihad against the
infidels. Pursuing such an interpretation of Islam, they turned the trail to the
bloodshed, pushed the spiritual aspect of the faith to the back burner and
conquered vast territories from Spain in West to the Indian sub-continent in
South. Many scholars therefore call this Jihad as civilisational war against the
non-Arabs. Wahhabism, which laid the foundation stone of Saudi Arabia in mid
eighteenth century and is still its political ideology. It is also based on the
same political interpretation of Islam by the medieval Muslim marauders and is
still the root cause of the on going Jihadi terrorism.

Historically, in
between the reign of the first Caliph Abu Bakre from 632 AD to the abolition of
the Ottoman Empire in 1924, it was the story of the rise and fall of Arabs.
However, when this mighty Islamic Empire of last Caliph entered into a period of
military reverses, a hardcore Islamist zealot namely Maulana Mohammad Ibn Abdul
Wahhab (1703-92) from the Najd region of Arabian Peninsula rejuvenated the
movement for revival of pristine Islam based on extreme Arab traditions of
Prophet Era with an objective to restore the glory of Islamic power. While
advocating purging Islam from modern innovation, he prescribed the imperialistic
supremacy of Ummah (Muslim community) under the Arab leadership and recommended
Jihad against the Qafirs, Shias, Sufis and the fellow Muslim heretics as the
only solution to the evil being faced by the Muslims. For him worship to the
tombs of Sufi saints was idolatry. Following the foot steps of the companions of
the Prophet he also clubbed Islam with Arab culture and made these two words
synonymous to each other. Wahhab’s worldview of extreme intolerance and belief
in divine fiat of authoritarian state under the command of exclusively central
Arabian power is also known as Sunni theo-fascism which continued and still
continues to proliferate it across the globe.

Like Prophet Mohammad who
was forced to flee from Mecca region at the beginning of revelations to him,
Wahhab’s preaching was also not acceptable to the ruler of his region.
Accordingly, being expelled from his home town he took refuge in Ad’Dirjyyah
near Riyadh then under the control of an Arab war lord of Al Saud clan named
Mohammad ibn Saud. Inspired with the teachings of Wahhab which advocated the
fusion of Islam and political power, Ibn Saud, then a principal tribal leader of
Arabian Peninsula became ambitious to extend his political territory and
therefore forged an alliance with the former in 1744/1745. The Alliance was
based on an agreement in which Ibn Saud pledged to implement and enforce his
teachings for cleansing the Islamic practices of heresy; the latter endorsed the
legitimacy of Saudi monarchy to rule over the Islamic Empire though the latter
had no credible claim over it. Accordingly, the Saudi king with the Jihadi
followers of Maulana Wahhab launched Jihad against the different rulers in
Arabian Peninsula and expanded his political boundary by conquering various
regions. Their attempt to capture Mecca was however, frustrated by the forces of
the Ottoman Empire in 1818.

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in
1924, the ambitious Saudi king re-launched Jihad against the kingdom of Hejaz
then under the control of Ottoman representative Hussain, a Hashimite (A broader
combination of a group of Arab clans including the Quraysh sub-clan of which
Prophet Mohammad belonged). Defeating Hussain who was also the then Sharifs
(Custodians) of Mecca shrine in 1926 the king became the custodian of the
holiest place of Islam and his Saudi kingdom was duly recognised by United
Kingdom under the Treaty of Jeddah in 1927 (The British then did not realize
what they were doing). “For centuries Hashemites governed Mecca which was
attacked and sacked by Ismaili Muslims in 930 CE and by the Wahhabis in 1803. In
1926, the Sharifs of Mecca were overthrown by the Saudis, and Mecca was
incorporated into Saudi Arabia”. After conquering Mecca and Medina Ibn Saud
united the different conquered regions of Arabian Peninsula in one political
unit in1932, established the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and declared himself as
king of the country. His legitimacy to lord over the region is thus
questionable.

Since Saudi-Wahhabi partnership was based on mutual
interest, Abdul Aziz took Wahhabism which had been carrying forward the legacy
of the Arab instinct of imperialism, justifying the Saudi Monarchy since 1744 AD
and endorsing the royal family’s authority in political, security and economic
spheres of the state, as key to the longevity of the rule of his dynasty.
Accordingly while recognising the Wahhabi version of Islamic rule as political
ideology of his kingdom, he granted the Wahhabi clerics the control over
religious, social and educational institutions and also allowed them to enforce
the Sharia (Islamic law) in the kingdom rigidly. Since then Wahhabism became an
integral part of Saudi administration and therefore, the royal family was duty
bound to spend a substantial portion of its oil-earned revenue for its promotion
not only in the kingdom but also across the world. The present day problems of
the Muslim could thus be tracked to the Saudis.

Sharing a significant
share in the political power of theocratic Saudi kingdom Wahhabi clerics have
been enjoying the status of a much more privileged class in comparison to their
counterparts during the medieval Islamic Empire. Today Wahhabism, a “most
intolerant expression of Islam” is characterised as Islamo-fascist group due to
its “ extremist, puritanical, contemptuous of modernity, misogynist and militant
in nature” ( Wahhabi Islam: From revival and reform to global jihad by Natna J.
Delong – Bas, page 3, I.B. Publishers).

As a first step to consolidate
their hold in the masses, the Wahhabi clerics framed the educational policy and
prescribed the text books in schools with a view to inciting hatred and violence
against the infidels. Now these textbooks having the potential to indoctrinate
the students and youths are also found in the syllabus of Wahhabi madrassas in
various parts of the world. “Saudi text books describe Jihad as the summit of
Islam and one of the most magnificent acts of obedience to God and endorse its
militant form for both for defensive and aggressive purposes” (Nina Shea and Ali
al Ahmad, National Review Online, August 3, 2009). Dr. Shea, the director of the
Hudson Institute’s Centre for Religious Freedom and Commissioner on the US
Commission on Religious Freedom is also the author of “200 Update: Saudi
Arabia’s Curriculum of Intolerance”.The writer in her earlier paper dated
September 5, 2008 referred to the Saudi Education Ministry which “publishes and
disseminates teachings that Muslims are to hate and treat as enemies other
religious believers, including other, non-Wahhabi Muslims”. She added that
“these text books assert that it is permissible for a Muslim to kill an
apostate, an adulterer, those practicing major polytheism and homosexuals. They
promote global Jihad as an effort to wage war against the unbelievers including
for the purpose of calling (infidels) to the faith”.

Curtin Winsor, Jr.
Special Emissary to the Middle East during Regan administration in his paper
(2001) entitled “Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism and Spread of Sunni Theo-fascism”
observed: “While Saudi citizens remain the vanguard of Islamic theo-fascism
around the world, the growth potential for this ideology lies outside the
kingdom. The Saudis have spent at least $ 87 billion propagating Wahhabism
abroad during the past two decades and the scale of financing is believed to
have increased in the past two years as oil prices have sky rocketed. The bulk
of the funding goes to the construction of mosques, madrassa, and other
religious institutions that preach Wahhabism. It also supports the training of
Imams; domination of mass media and publishing outlets; distribution of Wahhabi
text books and other literatures; and endowment to universities”. Wahhabism has
taken such a deep root in Saudi Arabia that “any attempt by Saudi Royal family
under international pressure to curtail the Wahhabis could lead to terrorist
attack on country’s vulnerable petroleum infrastructure or lead to the collapse
of monarchy” (Ibid.).

The annual report 2004 on Saudi Arabia under
‘International Religious Freedom Act 1998 stated: “Government prohibits public
non-Muslim religious activities. Non-Muslim worshippers risk imprisonment,
lashing, deportation and sometimes torture for engaging in religious activities
that attract official attention. Prosylytising by non-Muslims including the
distribution of non-Muslim religious materials such as Bibles is illegal” (Saudi
Arabia: People-Politics- Policies By Gulshan Dietl, National Book Trust, India,
2006, page 22). Although, the US Congress took note of this report but except
declaring Saudi Arabia “a country of Particular Concern” it maintained silence
on the issue. ‘Liberation’ a French daily in a debate published in early 2003
observed: “All over the world Imamas trained in Wahhabi school preach hatred and
violence in mosques paid for with Saudi money” (The Saudi Enigma by Pascal
Menoret, ZED Books London & New York, 2005, Page 62).

Dr. Sami
Alrabaa, an ex Muslim and an Arab Muslim culture specialist in an article dated
January 26, 2009 ( islam-watch.org) entitled “Saudi textbooks incite hatred &
violence against non-Muslims” suggests that so long Saudi Arabia and the other
Arab oil countries on the Persian Gulf are not forced by the free world the war
on Islamic terror will remain futile.

Referring to Ahmad Al Sarraf a
renowned columnist in Al Qabas (June 2, 2007), a Kuwaiti daily Dr. Sami cited
the teachers manual in Grade 8 textbook which says, “ Command Muslims to hate
Christians, Jews, polytheists and other unbelievers including non-devout
Muslims” (Page 14 in Grade 8 textbook). In his another article dated February
10, 2009 the writer observed that the “Saudi King and his clan are the law. They
rule whimsically, supported by Wahhabism, a stone-age Islamic version of Islam”.
In another article on the Wahhabisation of Saudi people he observed, “A
hatred-inciting education system and lack of contact with the secular world in
terms of books and culture have generated a fanatic population” “All that being
said, we should not wonder that 15 of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis”. He also
wrote that Wahhabi books are also “printed and funded by Saudis for schools in
Pakistan, Indonesia, Deobandi madrassas in India and elsewhere”. Despite such
curriculum of intolerancee one should not wonder that the Saudi kingdom
organized an interfaith dialogue with some of its trusted Christian and Jew
leaders. (A paper of this writer can be seen in the site of saag.org).

It is
said that ever since the exposure that out of “15 of the 9/11 terrorists were
Saudis” the USA no longer considers Saudi Arabia its trusted ally as the latter
is suspected for funding Osama bin Laden in lieu of the latter’s assurance to
protect the monarchy from terrorist attacks. However, despite being aware of the
situation , it is the compulsion of the USA to protect the oil-giant as the
alliance between the two countries is based on their mutual interest of
protecting the Arab-American oil companies which are running the cycle of the
oil linked economy of the both.

This politics of convenience is known to
the entire world but except raising some mild voice against it the international
community is helplessly suffering from their game of self-seeking interest. Now
USA is talking about launching ‘war on terror’ which hardly makes any sense so
long Saudi Arabia is not out of the ideological ring of Wahhabism.