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This is long, but interesting to us with little knowledge in this area.
It is not trading related unless at some point it affects our oil supply
from the Saudis. So if you are not interested, delete it now.
Visit The Spectator.co.uk at <http://www.spectator.co.uk
GROUND ZERO AND THE SAUDI CONNECTION Stephen Schwartz on the
extreme Islamic sect that inspires Osama bin Laden as well
as all Muslim suicide bombers -- and is subsidised by Saudi
Arabia
By Stephen Schwartz
Washington
The first thing to do when trying to understand 'Islamic
suicide bombers' is to forget the cliches about the Muslim
taste for martyrdom. It does exist, of course, but the
desire for paradise is not a safe guide to what motivated
the appalling suicide attacks on New York and Washington
last week. Throughout history, political extremists of all
faiths have willingly given up their lives simply in the
belief that by doing so, whether in bombings or in other
forms of terror, they would change the course of history, or
at least win an advantage for their cause.
Tamils are not Muslims, but they blow themselves up in their
war on the government of Sri Lanka; Japanese kamikaze
pilots in the second world war were not Muslims, but they flew
their fighters into US aircraft carriers. The Islamofascist
ideology of Osama bin Laden and those closest to him, such
as the Egyptian and Algerian 'Islamic Groups', is no more
intrinsically linked to Islam or Islamic civilisation than Pearl
Harbor was to Buddhism, or Ulster terrorists — whatever they
may profess — are toChristianity. Serious Christians don't go
around killing and maiming the innocent; devout Muslims do
not prepare for paradise by hanging out in strip bars and
getting drunk, as one of last week's terrorist pilots was
reported to have done.
The attacks of 11 September are simply not compatible with
orthodox Muslim theology, which cautions soldiers 'in the
way of Allah' to fight their enemies face-to-face, without
harming non-combatants, women or children.
Most Muslims, not only in America and Britain, but in the
world, are clearly law-abiding citizens of their countries —
a point stressed by President Bush and other American
leaders, much to their credit. Nobody on this side of the
water wants a repeat of the lamented 1941 internment of
Japanese Americans.
Still, the numerical preponderance of Muslims as perpetrators
of these ghastly incidents is no coincidence. So we have to
ask ourselves what has made these men into the monsters
they are? What has so galvanised violent tendencies
in the world's second-largest religion (and, in America, the
fastest growing faith)? Can it really flow from a quarrel
over a bit of land in the Middle East?
For Westerners, it seems natural to look for answers in the
distant past, beginning with the Crusades. But if you ask
educated, pious, traditional but forward-looking Muslims
what has driven their umma, or global community, in this
direction, many of them will answer you with one word:
Wahhabism. This is a strain of Islam that emerged not at the
time of the Crusades, nor even at the time of the anti-Turkish
wars of the 17th century, but less than twocenturies ago. It is
violent, it is intolerant, and it is fanatical beyond measure. It
originated in Arabia, and it is the official theology of the
Gulf states. Wahhabism is the most extreme form of Islamic
fundamentalism, and its followers are called Wahhabis.
Not all Muslims are suicide bombers, but all Muslim suicide
bombers are Wahhabis — except, perhaps, for some disciples
of atheist leftists posing as Muslims in the interests of
personal power, such as Yasser Arafat or Saddam Hussein.
Wahhabism is the Islamic equivalent of the most extreme
Protestant sectarianism. It is puritan, demanding punishment
for those who enjoy any form of music except the drum, and
severe punishment up to death for drinking or sexual
transgressions. It condemns as unbelievers those who do not
pray, a view that never previously existed in mainstream
Islam.
It is stripped-down Islam, calling for simple, short
prayers, undecorated mosques, and the uprooting of
gravestones (since decorated mosques and graveyards lend
themselves to veneration, which is idolatry in the Wahhabi
mind). Wahhabis do not even permit the name of the Prophet
Mohammed to be inscribed in mosques, nor do they allow his
birthday to be celebrated. Above all, they hate ostentatious
spirituality, much as Protestants detest the veneration of
miracles and saints in the Roman Church.
Ibn Abdul Wahhab (1703?92), the founder of this totalitarian
Islamism, was born in Uyaynah, in the part of Arabia known
as Nejd, where Riyadh is today, and which the Prophet
himself notably warned would be a source of corruption and
confusion. (Anti-Wahhabi Muslims refer to Wahhabism as fitna
an Najdiyyah or 'the trouble out of Nejd'.) From the
beginning of Wahhab's dispensation, in the late 18th
century, his cult was associated with the mass murder of all
who opposed it. For example, the Wahhabis fell upon the city
of Qarbala in 1801 and killed 2,000 ordinary citizens in the
streets and markets.
In the 19th century, Wahhabism took the form of Arab
nationalism v. the Turks. The founder of the Saudi kingdom,
Ibn Saud, established Wahhabism as its official creed. Much
has been made of the role of the US in 'creating' Osama bin
Laden through subsidies to the Afghan mujahedin, but as much
or more could be said in reproach of Britain which, three
generations before, supported the Wahhabi Arabs in their
revolt against the Ottomans. Arab hatred of the Turks fused
with Wahhabi ranting against the 'decadence' of Ottoman
Islam. The truth is that the Ottoman khalifa reigned over
amultinational Islamic umma in which vast differences in
local culture and tradition were tolerated. No such
tolerance exists in Wahhabism, which is why the concept of
US troops on Saudi soil so inflames bin Laden.
Bin Laden is a Wahhabi. So are the suicide bombers in
Israel. So are his Egyptian allies, who exulted as they
stabbed foreign tourists to death at Luxor not many years
ago, bathing in blood up to their elbows and emitting
blasphemous cries of ecstasy. So are the Algerian Islamist
terrorists whose contribution to the purification of the
world consisted of murdering people for such sins as running
a movie projector or reading secular newspapers. So are the
Taleban-style guerrillas in Kashmir who murder Hindus. The
Iranians are not Wahhabis, which partially explains their
slow but undeniable movement towards moderation and
normality after a period of utopian and puritan revivalism.
But the Taleban practise a variant of Wahhabism. In the
Wahhabi fashion they employ ancient punishments — such as
execution for moral offences — and they have a primitive and
fearful view of women. The same is true of Saudi Arabia's
rulers. None of this extremism has been inspired by American
fumblings in the world, and it has little to do with the
tragedies that have beset Israelis and Palestinians.
But the Wahhabis have two weaknesses of which the West is
largely unaware; an Achilles' heel on each foot, so to
speak. The first is that the vast majority of Muslims in the
world are peaceful people who would prefer the installation
of Western democracy in their own countries. They loathe
Wahhabism for the same reason any patriarchal culture
rejects a violent break with tradition. And that is the
point that must be understood: bin Laden and other Wahhabis
are not defending Islamic tradition; they represent an
ultra-radical break in the direction of a sectarian utopia.
Thus, they are best described as Islamofascists, although
they have much in common with Bolsheviks.
The Bengali Sufi writer Zeeshan Ali has described the
situation touchingly: 'Muslims from Bangladesh in the US,
just like any other place in the world, uphold the
traditional beliefs of Islam but, due to lack of
instruction, keep quiet when their beliefs are attacked by
Wahhabis in the US who all of a sudden become "better"
Muslims than others. These Wahhabis go even further and
accuse their own fathers of heresy, sin and unbelief. And
the young children of the immigrants, when they grow up inthis country,
get exposed only to this one-sided version of
Islam and are led to think that this is the only Islam.
Naturally a big gap is being created every day that silence
is only widening.' The young, divided between tradition and
the call of the new, opt for 'Islamic revolution' and commit
themselves to their self-destruction, combined with mass
murder.
The same influences are brought to bear throughout the
ten-million-strong Muslim community in America, as well as
those in Europe. In the US, 80 per cent of mosques are
estimated by the Sufi Hisham al-Kabbani, born in Lebanon and
now living in the US, to be under the control of Wahhabi
imams, who preach extremism, and this leads to the other
point of vulnerability: Wahhabism is subsidised by Saudi
Arabia, even though bin Laden has sworn to destroy the Saudi royal
family. The Saudis have played a double game for
years, more or less as Stalin did with the West during the
second world war. They pretended to be allies in a common
struggle against Saddam Hussein while they spread Wahhabi
ideology everywhere Muslims are to be found, just as Stalin
promoted an 'antifascist' coalition with the US while
carrying out espionage and subversion on American territory.
The motive was the same: the belief that the West was or is
decadent and doomed.
One major question is never asked in American discussions of
Arab terrorism: what is the role of Saudi Arabia? The
question cannot be asked because American companies depend
too much on the continued flow of Saudi oil, while American
politicians have become too cosy with the Saudi rulers.
Another reason it is not asked is that to expose the extent
of Saudi and Wahhabi influence on American Muslims would
deeply compromise many Islamic clerics in the US. But it is
the most significant question Americans should be asking
themselves today. If we get rid of bin Laden, who do we then
have to deal with? The answer was eloquently put by Seyyed
Vali Reza Nasr, professor of political science at the
University of California at San Diego, and author of an
authoritative volume on Islamic extremism in Pakistan, when
he said: 'If the US wants to do something about radical
Islam, it has to deal with Saudi Arabia. The "rogue states"
[Iraq, Libya, etc.] are less important in the radicalisation
of Islam than Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the single most
important cause and supporter of radicalisation,
ideologisation, and the general fanaticisation of Islam.'
.From what we now know, it appears not a single one of the
suicide pilots in New York and Washington was Palestinian.
They all seem to have been Saudis, citizens of the Gulf
states, Egyptian or Algerian. Two are reported to have been
the sons of the former second secretary of the Saudi embassy
in Washington. They were planted in America long before the
outbreak of the latest Palestinian intifada; in fact, they
seem to have begun their conspiracy while the Middle East
peace process was in full, if short, bloom. Anti-terror
experts and politicians in the West must now consider the
Saudi connection.
Stephen Schwartz is the author of 'Intellectuals and
Assassins', published by Anthem Press.
(c)2001 The Spectator.co.uk
--- -- - Some Links To Info About Wahhabism - -- ---
Reflections on the Wahhabiyah Movement
<http://sunnah.org/audio/onwahhabis.htm
Who or What is a Wahhabi
http://www.ahle-sunnat.org.uk/WAHABI.html
The Wahhabi Fitnah
http://village.flashnet.it/users/fn034463/fitnah.html
Fitnatu-l-Wahhabiyyah An Essay about the Wahhabi Crimes
against Islam and against Muslims by Mawlana Shaykhu-l-Islam
Ahmad Zayni Dahlan al-Makki ash-Shaf'i, Chief Mufti of Mecca
al-Mukarramah, may Allah be pleased with him.
Saudis Secretly Funding Taliban (1998 report)
http://www.indian-express.com/ie/daily/19980903/24650034.html
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