The Religious Roots of Violence: Islam III

better than santa claus

(Previously on the LHG: The Religious Roots of Violence: Islam I and II)

Saudi Arabia: Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1791) and the Wahhabi movement.

Al-Wahhab regarded the condition of Arabia of his time - land of Muhammad - as corrupt and idolatrous. He and his followers set out to purge Islam of what they considered impure going as far as to destroy the tomb of Muhammad and his Companions in Mecca and Medina.

Wahhab combined religious zeal and military might when he allied with Muhammad ibn Saud, a local tribe chief, to form a religious and political movement. Eventually Saudia Arabia was created: the kingdom merged the political and religious; it was and is led by a succession of kings from the House of Saud with the close support of the religious Wahhabi establishment.

Today the Saudis export this extreme and militant version of Wahhabi Islam to other countries and communities. They offer development aid, build mosques, fund and distribute religious tracts and commision religious scholars. And provide financial support to extremist groups who follow militant brands of Islam worldwide.

Afghanistan:

In December of 1979 the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan; and this provides an opening for Saudia Arabia to retake leadership of the radical wing of Islam. Afghanistan allowed the Saudi government to shield the US from radical Islamic activists, making sure that the Soviet Union would replace the US as their main scapegoat.

In the training camps around Peshawar - the capital of the Pakistani NW frontier province where three million Afghan refugees were living - thousands of Islamic radical fighters converged from all over the Muslim world. An international group of Islamic militants, willing to fight worldwide for the sake of their radical understanding of Islam, emerged. They were funded by Saudi Arabia, and the US who provided military support and training.

Think about it: you've got three million refugees and Islamic radicals converging in Peshawar. These refugees were now "detribalized" and had become poor urban youth highly receptive to radical islamic ideology. Children, cut off from their families, where taken to religious schools were they received an education funded by Saudi money and thus connected to a radical Wahhabi version of Islam. Their alliance lay with that radical version of Islam. They are the Taliban - literally meaning students, who adhere to a Wahabbi version of Islam.