On Wahhabism (1 of 3)

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Presented without comment.  The publications mentioned are typically deemed 
conservative publications in the US.

James


18 November 2002
The Good & the Bad
Stephen Schwartz on Islam and Wahhabism.

A Q&A by Kathryn Jean Lopez

Stephen Schwartz, an author and journalist, is author of The Two Faces
of Islam: The House of Sa'ud from Tradition to Terror. A vociferous
critic of Wahhabism, Schwartz is a frequent contributor to National
Review, The Weekly Standard, and other publications.

Kathryn Jean Lopez: What is Wahhabism?

Stephen Schwartz: Wahhabism is an extremist, puritanical, and violent
movement that emerged, with the pretension of "reforming" Islam, in the
central area of Arabia in the 18th century.

It was founded by Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who formed an alliance with the
house of Saud, in which religious authority is maintained by the
descendants of al-Wahhab and political power is held by the descendants
of al-Saud: This is the Wahhabi-Saudi axis, which continues to rule
today. From its beginning, Wahhabism declared the entirety of existing
Islam to be unbelief, and traditional Muslims to be unbelievers subject
to robbery, murder, and sexual violation. Wahhabism has always viewed
Shia Muslims genocidally, as non-Muslims worthy of annihilation.
Wahhabism has always attacked the traditional, spiritual Islam or
Sufism that dominates Islam in the Balkans, Turkey, Central Asia,
India, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Wahhabism and neo-Wahhabism (the latter
being the doctrines of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the
Pakistani Islamists) are the main source of Islamic extremist violence
in the world today. Wahhabism represents a distinct, ultraradical form
of Islamism. Wahhabism is completely subsidized by the Saudi regime,
using oil income.

Wahhabism has always maintained a two-faced policy regarding the West.
It has always depended on the armed forces of the Christian nations ?
Britain, the U.S., and France ? to secure its domination in the Arabian
peninsula, while it violently attacks Jews, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs,
and Buddhists, as well as traditional Sunnis, Sufis, and Shias,
throughout the rest of the world. Thus, the presence of U.S. troops
guarding the Saudis did not begin with the Gulf War in 1991. From 1946
to 1962 the U.S. maintained an airbase in Saudi Arabia, and before that
the British assisted the Wahhabi-Saudi alliance against the Ottomans.
When the Saudis needed to clear the Grand Mosque in Mecca of protestors
in 1979, they employed French paratroops to kill Muslims within the
walls of the mosque.

Lopez: How widespread is it?

Schwartz: Wahhabism is official in Saudi Arabia. It is influential in
Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. It has a substantial
following in Yemen, which also has many Shia Muslims. It is unpopular
in Bahrain and irrelevant in Oman.

Outside the Peninsula, Wahhabism is generally unpopular. But where
trouble is found, Wahhabism may thrive. Hamas in Israel represents pure
Wahhabism. Forms of neo-Wahhabi or Wahhabized ideology have been
powerful in Egypt (the Muslim Brotherhood) and in Pakistan ? in both
countries neo-Wahhabis lead attacks on other Muslims and other faiths.
But in both countries mainstream Muslim scholars continue to struggle
against Wahhabism. Wahhabi aggression was defeated in Algeria and
Tajikistan.

Wahhabi infiltration continues in Chechnya, to the detriment of the
just struggle of the Chechens against Russian imperialism, and in
Kashmir, where it is an obstacle to resolution of the conflict. Wahhabi
extremism and terrorism continue to plague Nigeria, Uzbekistan,
Indonesia, and the Philippines, although its real supporters in these
countries are few in number.

But Wahhabi infiltration failed in Bosnia-Hercegovina and suffered a
smashing repudiation in Kosovo. Albanian Muslims in Macedonia and
Albania dislike Wahhabism, more intensely in the former than in the
latter. Wahhabism and its surrogate, the Deobandi ideology of the
Taliban, has been defeated in Afghanistan. Wahhabism has no real
following in among the Muslim masses in Francophone West Africa,
Morocco, Libya, the rest of Central Asia, India, or Malaysia.

As to other Middle Eastern regions and states: Saddam Hussein has used
Wahhabism to give his regime an Islamic cover, but Wahhabism is deeply
unpopular in Iraq.

Kurdistan is mainly Sufi in its Islam and aside from a handful of
mercenary extremists, Kurds reject Wahhabism.

Syria, although a radical Arab state, is Islamically pluralist and
rejects Wahhabism completely.

Jordan is ruled by Hashemites, who are traditional enemies of Wahhabism.

Turkish Muslims loathe Wahhabism because of its role in subverting the
Ottoman caliphate.

Iran loathes Wahhabism as much or more, because of its massacres of
Shias and wholesale destruction of Islamic holy sites, among other
issues.

And other trouble spots: Sudan is a case unto itself, although Wahhabi
influence has been present in the Khartoum regime.

Wahhabi infiltration is a serious problem in East Africa.

In the Western European immigrant Muslim communities, Wahhabism has a
presence in France but has been weakened by the atrocities in Algeria.
Britain has a loud Wahhabi, neo-Wahhabi, and Wahhabi-wannabe element
but little real support for it among local Muslims. Wahhabism and
Islamic extremism in general are weak in Germany, where most Muslims
are Turkish and Kurdish.




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