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From
http://www.msnbc.com/news/643005.asp?cp1=1
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}}}>Begin
The ‘New Wahhabi’ movement
Increasingly, Saudi-funded sect viewed as central to U.S. war on
terrorism
Sunni Muslims in Lebanon watch as anti-American demonstrators chant
slogans supporting Osama bin Laden in Tripoli last Friday.
By Sue Lackey
MSNBC
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct. 17 — In a middle-class neighborhood in West
Beirut near the squalor of the Shatila refugee camp, Palestinians
live side by side with Shiite Muslims who fled the Israeli occupation
in southern Lebanon. Graffiti and banners reflect the local sympathy
for the “martyrs” of their respective causes: the fight for a
Palestinian homeland and the Shiite Hezbollah movement, considered a
terrorist group by the U.S. government. Nestled among these militant
groups, however, are religious schools that U.S. intelligence
officials regard as far more dangerous. They are the madrassas of the
Saudi-funded Wahhabi sect, part of a worldwide network of Muslim
extremists that now figures at the center of the Sept. 11 attacks.
IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD and several others like it, puritanical
Wahhabi schools indoctrinate young men in radical militancy. Between
the ages of 7 and 15, they are taught the fundamentals of strict
Islam and religious obligations. Between the ages of 15 and 25, these
young men are trained to fight and prepared for the jihad, or holy
war — in this case conquest of Wahhabi Islam. The students they are
charged with fulfilling missions related to the jihad.
Many Muslims and Koranic scholars denounce this radical
interpretation of Islamic precepts as one that distorts Islam’s
holiest text into a cookbook for violent action.
“It is a religion of peace,” Farkhunda Ali, spokeswoman for
the American Muslim Council, said in the wake of the Sept. 11
attacks. “These types of acts are not Islam. They are manslaughter.”
An internal security officer in an Arab country, who asked not
to be identified, put it more bluntly: “They’re killers. By the time
they’re teen-agers, they’re capable of being recruited as
terrorists.”
LARGE NETWORK
It is important to stress that not all of the young men who
attend Wahhabi schools will turn to violence. A number will go on to
become religion teachers themselves.
The Wahhabi pride themselves on adherence to Islamic values
such as honesty and piety in their dealings with each other. Wahhabi
communities are generally well organized and well financed, and
residents carry on normal lives as tradesmen.
The vast majority of Wahhabi communities do not openly
maintain armed militias, though they do engage in paramilitary
training. With the notable exception of the Taliban, weapons or other
arms are kept concealed.
These communities are different than Wahhabi factions that
have developed in Palestinian refugee camps, particularly in Lebanon.
There, many members are criminals and fugitives who have turned to
radical Islam and receive financing in return.
A GROWING MOVEMENT
The Wahhabi movement flourishes in every Muslim country —
despite the fears of governments, and in some cases because of those
fears. This has given suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida
organization an international ideological and operational network.
In Lebanon, where factional politics flourish, the Wahhabi
movement is estimated by internal security officials to be about
4,000 strong. The movement is far larger in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and
Pakistan. It goes by many names — Ikhwan, Wahhabi, Salifiyya,
Mowahabin and now, famously, Taliban. What all of them have in common
is a militant view of Sunni Islam and financial support at the
highest levels of the Saudi Arabian government.
DOUBLE-DEALING
Over the past 10 years, Saudi Arabia, either directly or
indirectly through non-governmental organizations, has financed all
of the Wahhabi movements in the region, says one prominent Islamic
scholar in Lebanon.
“This was really a strategic mistake,” he says. “The Arab
rulers, as well as the policy analysts, have really underestimated
the [fundamentalist] regeneration in the region. I would expect a war
of Wahhabism against the gulf countries, particularly Saudi rulers.”
By funding the Wahhabi sect, the Saudi royal family purchased
immunity for itself, but this now appears to be ending. As soon as
the U.S. air strikes against Afghanistan began on Oct. 7, one of the
most prominent Islamic scholars in the kingdom published a “fatwah”
against the royal family, warning, “Whoever supports the infidel
against Muslims is considered an infidel. It is a duty to wage jihad
[holy war] on anyone who attacks Afghanistan.” Saudi King Fahd, whose
monarchy is being questioned by Islamic scholars and the West alike.
Since then, other clerics
inside and outside the country have added their voices, in effect ex-
communicating Saudi Arabia’s ruling family for aiding the U.S.-led
attacks on Afghanistan, which is ruled by the Taliban and has been a
refuge for bin Laden.
For their part, the United States and Britain, which saved the
Saudi kingdom from almost certain conquest by Iraq in 1990-91, are
furious at the emerging evidence that Saudi money bankrolled the
killers of 6,000 or more Americans on Sept. 11.
A NEW INTERPRETATION
The militancy that the United States believes is behind the
Sept. 11 bombings has been dubbed the New Wahhabism. But it is really
only the latest manifestation of a centuries-old feud within Islam.
The Wahhabi movement began in 1740 on the Arabian Peninsula,
where harsh and primitive conditions bred an unyielding and violent
strain of Islam. When Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi
Arabia and father of the current rulers, conquered the peninsula in
the 1920s, he used the Wahhabis to drive out his Hashemite rivals,
who now rule Jordan. The Wahhabis eventually turned on Abdul Aziz for
not adhering to their fundamentalist view of Islam, and he killed or
imprisoned most of their leadership.
Now, bin Laden has remade the Wahhabi movement in his own
image. First and foremost, bin Laden would like to see New Wahhabism
overthrow the Saudi government, which he denounces for corruption and
for allowing U.S. soldiers to be based on Saudi soil following the
Persian Gulf War.
NO DEVIATION
The West and Arab governments such as Saudi Arabia’s are not
the only targets of the New Wahhabism. This harsh fundamentalist view
of Islam sees all who do not adhere to its beliefs as infidels, even
moderate Sunni Muslims and Shiites, who form the majority in Iran and
Lebanon and substantial minorities in other Arab countries. Also
beyond the pale to these puritans, of course, are members of any
other religion.
Many Islamic scholars who disagree with these views see bin
Laden’s call for a holy war against America as a distraction from his
larger intentions. In reality, they say, the Wahhabis’ personal and
organizational beliefs ultimately will force a war within Islam, as
well.
“There is hatred between Wahhabism and Shiaism,” says an Arab
expert on fundamentalism. “This is very crucial. They consider that
everyone has deviated.”
The repressive nature of many Arab regimes has provided
fertile ground for this ideology, particularly among poorer and less
educated people who have no access to the window that the Internet or
satellite television provides to the outside world. Where many
governments have been unable or unwilling to provide social services,
Islamic associations, including Wahhabi groups, have stepped in,
fostering loyalty to Islam instead of a state. To keep social unrest
at bay, many regimes, from Egypt to Saudi Arabia to Pakistan,
encourage demonization of Israel and the West.
WHO WILL WIN?
Fundamentalism, with its abhorrence of modernity, ensures that
the poor and illiterate will receive one narrow view of world events.
“Bin Laden has recruited without a physical presence in the street,”
says one Arab expert on fundamentalism. “Why? Because whether you
like it or not, the average citizen in this part of the world is
perceiving what’s happening as a clash of civilizations, despite the
emphasis of the United States and Europe.”
The United States may destroy the Taliban with its airstrikes,
but this expert says that the Wahhabis will win out in the end
because they are disciplined and have the money and recruiting system
to build their following.
“The [other Islamic factions] fight the Wahhabis as an
independent movement, they think they are backwards. But finally they
are going to give up and become Wahhabis. The money is coming from
the Wahhabis; it’s as simple as that.”
~~~~~~~~
The 27 individuals and organizations that are on a list of alleged
terrorism supporters included in an executive order signed by
President Bush on Monday, September 24th:
Al-Qaida/Islamic Army
Abu Sayyaf Group
Armed Islamic Group
Harakat ul-Mujahidin
Al-Jihad (Egyptian Islamic Jihad)
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
Asbat al-Ansar
Salafist Group for Call and Combat
Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya
Islamic Army of Aden
Osama bin Laden
Muhammad Atif; also known as Subhi Abu Sitta, Abu Hafs Al Masri
Sayf al-Adl
Shaykh Saiid; also known as Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad
Abu Hafs the Mauritanian; also known as Mahfouz Ould al-Walid, Khalid Al-Shanqiti
Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi
Abu Zubaydah; also known as Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, Tariq
Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi; also known as Abu Abdallah
Ayman al-Zawahri
Thirwat Salah Shihata
Tariq Anwar Al-Sayyid Ahmad; also known as Faith, Amr al-Fatih
Muhammad Salah; also known as Nasr Fahmi Nasr Hasanayn
Makhtab Al-Khidamat/Al Kifah
Wafa Humanitarian Organization
Al Rashid Trust
Mamoun Darkazanli Import-Export Co.
End<{{{
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