[PEN-L:1171] Wah'habism

[Rosser Jr, John Barkley]

     Besides pan-Islamic anti-colonialism (with an emphasis 
on the US) and anti-Zionism, the ideology of Osama bin 
Laden is more specifically a radical variant of the 
ideology of the Sa'udi royal family, Wah'habism.  In this 
post I shall discuss its history and characteristics, 
especially in relation to the Kingdom of Sa'udi Arabia 
(KSA) and its relations with the US.
     An Islamic law code is a Shari'a, the Way, and all 
Islamic fundamentalists support nations being ruled by a 
Shari'a.  In Sunni Islam four Shari'as evolved: Hanafi, the 
oldest and loosest in interpretation, Melki, prominent in 
North Africa, Shafi, prominent in Southeast Asia, and the 
most recent and strictest, Hanbali.  The ideology of 
Wah'habism is that the Hanbali Shari'a should be imposed, 
as it is in KSA and Qatar.  The Hanbali Shari'a accepts 
only the Qur'an and selected parts of the Hadith (sayings 
of the Prophet Muhammed) as legitimate foundations for law.
     Although the Hanbali code had been around for several 
hundred years already, the Wah'habist movement dates from 
1740 when an itinerant Muslim mullah, Mohammed ibn Wah'hab 
encountered a minor tribal chieftain, Mohammed ibn Sa'ud, 
founder of the Sa'udi royal family, under a palm tree in the
small village of Dhariyah, now a suburb of Riyadh, capital 
of KSA.  They formed an alliance and ever since the al-Sa'ud
have attempted to spread acceptance of the Hanbali Shari'a 
to wherever they came to rule, although until the twentieth 
century this area of control was usually only in the 
central Najd, the central part of the Arabian peninsula.
     The founder of modern KSA was Abdulaziz ibn 
Abdul-Rahman al-Sa'ud, whose birth and death years were the 
same as Joseph Stalin's.  Early in the twentieth century he 
began a drive to unify the Arabian tribes under his rule 
and did so by a combination of conquests and marriages, 
ultimately resulting in 43 sons, some of whom constitute 
the current ruling elite of KSA.  In 1924, Abdulaziz (known 
inaccurately in the West as Ibn Saud) conquered Mecca, 
Medina, the holy cities of Islam, driving out the 
long-ruling Hashemites who were given the booby prizes of 
Jordan and Iraq by the British (there was always a split at 
Whitehall, with the dominant "Lawrence of Arabia" faction 
favoring the Prophet-descended Hashemites and a minority 
faction, led by Kim Philby's dad, St. John, favoring the 
Sa'udis.)  At this time Abdulaziz took the title, "Malik" 
(king) and by 1932 had established the current 
approximate boundaries of KSA.
     Although very strict and fundamentalist (he forbade 
music, among other things), Abdulaziz faced an even more 
fundamentalist revolt in 1929 which he succeeded in 
suppressing with the aid of Philby.  In 1979, the same 
tribes would revolt, seizing control of the Grand Mosque in 
Mecca, complaining of US domination and corruption (they 
demanded US removal, no women in universities, no soccer, 
no TV, and no rights for Shi'is, who were simultaneously 
revolting in the Eastern Province). They would be defeated 
by the National Guard, headed by current Crown Prince, 
Abdullah, leader of the more fundamentalist faction of the 
Sa'udi royal family that opposes the more pro-US and 
corrupt faction led by King Fahd.
     The US became involved in KSA because of oil, although 
at the time of the crucial decision it was not known how 
rich in oil KSA would prove to be.  It was at the 1928 
conference at Achnacarry Castle in Scotland, owned by 
Walter Teagle of Royal Dutch Shell, that Shell, the future 
BP (Anglo-Iranian Oil Company), and the future Exxon (New 
Jersey Standard) reached the Red Line Agreement whereby 
they divided up the Middle East by drawing red lines on a 
map.  The British companies were more interested in Iran 
and Iraq where oil had already been discovered and left KSA 
for New Jersey Standard.  Oil was only discovered there in 
1936 which would eventually lead to the formation of ARAMCO 
out of four US majors to pump and refine oil in KSA, and 
which would eventually lead KSA to found OPEC with 
Venezuela in 1960. In 1948 KSA initiated profit-sharing and 
eventually nationalized the oil in the ground.
     In any case, anybody who has read this far can figure 
the rest out.  The leadership of KSA eventually became 
corrupted by the US alliance and besotted with 
petrodollars.  The upshot has been an increasingly strong 
internal opposition based on traditional Sa'udi Wah'habism. 
The royal family supported anti-Soviet Wah'habist 
mujaheddin in Afghanistan, and with Osama bin Laden's 
participation in that war, well, the rest is history.
     BTW, one Sa'udi king who was more resistant to the US 
was King Faisal who engineered the initial oil price hike 
of 1973 to punish the US for its support of Israel in the 
Yom Kippur War.  Faisal was assassinated by a crazed nephew 
who was wreaking vengeance for Faisal's having executed his 
brother for attacking a TV station and killing guards.  
Faisal was the smartest and most respected of the 43 sons 
of Abdulaziz, being his representative at age 16 to the 
Versailles Conference.  His mother was from the al-Sheik 
family, descendents of Mohammed al-Wah'hab.
Barkley Rosser

-- 
Rosser Jr, John Barkley
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