Secret Saudi funding of radical Islamic groups in Australia.(Saudi Arabia)

• Author: Bendle, Mervyn F.
• Position: 164548220
• Pages: 7(12)

Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, it has become clear that there has been a seismic shift in the structure of global Islam, and from this situation is emerging an "age of sacred Terror", (1) in which "a new type of terrorism threatens the world, driven by networks of fanatics determined to inflict maximum civilian and economic damage [and] yearning for martyrdom and eager to kill". (2)

The structures of Islamic society that have persisted for over a millennium are now giving way under the impact of modernity and globalisation, while also being subverted from within by forms of radical Islamic fundamentalism, exemplified by Wahhabism, the sectarian form of Islam that serves as the vanguard of "Saudi religious imperialism". (3) Although historically and numerically a minor tendency within Islam, Wahhabism's enormous financial support from the Saudi regime allows it to overwhelm traditional forms of Islam, making it "an international Islamist discourse". (4) This growing dominance is given extra institutional weight by the quasi-caliphal role that the Saudis have assumed as the custodians of the holy sites of Mecca and Medina, bestowing on them a pseudo-legitimacy that obscures the sectarian nature of Wahhabism.

WAHHABISM'S ORIGINS

Wahhabism (5) began as a small sect in the Arabian peninsular in the 18th century under the leadership of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792) who deployed the principle of ijtihad ("independent analysis") to call for Islamic revival based on a rigorous monotheism, a strict orthopraxy (correct practice) and a vision of extreme doctrinal purity and social order that he believed characterised Islam in the age of the Prophet. (6) He formed an alliance with the chief of a local tribe, Muhammad ibn Sa'ud, that has lasted to the present day and shapes the political and religious life of Saudi Arabia.

Wahhabism advocates a puritanical and literalistic stance in all matters of religious and everyday practice, and believes that it is necessary for all humanity to live in the manner believed practised by the prophet Muhammad and his followers in seventh-century Arabia. It seeks to rescue Islam from what it sees as innovations, superstitions, deviations, heresies, idolatries, and effectively every aspect of modern life. It has been observed of Wahhabism that it "is considerably different from any other form of Islam hitherto attested historically". (7) Indeed, it constitutes "a rupture and discontinuity with Muslim society", (8) an historical mutation that finds expression in Wahhabism's extreme sectarianism, its "extremely promiscuous use of takfir" (9)--the declaration of other Muslims as infidels--and its fierce determination to impose extremely restrictive and archaic rules of behaviour on all Muslims, while working to impose Islam across the globe.

SAUDI FUNDING

This Wahhabi offensive has also been described as "petro-Islam" because Saudi oil revenue ensured that the rapid spread of such Wahhabi-based institutions "was one of the most visible changes in the landscape of the rapidly urbanising Muslim world". (10) Predictably, precise information on the extent of this funding is difficult to obtain, but governments in the West are increasing pressure on Saudi Arabia to oversee, regulate and disclose information about the flows of financial support. (11)

In the US, a comprehensive investigation drawing on government sources, including the CIA's Illicit Transactions Group, estimated that two-thirds of the $70 billion spent by the Saudis between 1979 and 2003 on "international aid" was used to infiltrate institutions and promote Wahhabism and anti-Western and anti-Israeli propaganda. (12) Another estimate--by a former CIA director--indicates that by 2005 the Saudis had spent some $90 billion to export Wahhabism globally. (13) This is more than twice the estimated rate of $1 billion per annum spent by the Soviet Union on propaganda during the Cold War. (14) Much of this Saudi funding went towards the establishment of Wahhabi-dominated religious schools, colleges, and other social and cultural infrastructure, while in non-Muslim countries alone, the Saudis financed the construction of some 2,000 schools, 1,500 mosques, and 210 Islamic centres between 1982 and 2002. (15)

Saudi financial power also means that it can control key Muslim publishing houses, promoting Wahhabi texts and ensuring the suppression of Sufi, Shi'a, and other Muslim works now deemed non-Islamic. Throughout the world, Saudi-backed Wahhabi groups control or dominate various major Muslim organisations. (16) For example, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and its subsidiary, the Islamic Development Bank and related organisations "have exported Wahhabi Islam to the rest of the Muslim world as well as to Europe and America". (17) The World Islamic League was a primary Wahhabi vehicle, exercising influence through such bodies as the European Council of Mosques and the Islamic Coordinating Council of North America. (18)

In the West, the Saudi-backed Wahhabi onslaught was comprehensive and often irresistible: (19)

"A wave of oil funding hit university after university, college after college, and research centre after research centre, as well as public libraries, museums, and other places of learning.... The objectives were fully ideological: further the cause of Islam ... support the Palestinian cause ... and plant the seeds of the concept of an illegitimate West." IMPACT ON WESTERN SOCIETIES

Liberal democratic societies remain off balance. For example, "Britain is in denial. Having allowed the country to turn into a global hub of the Islamic jihad", the British Government remains incapable of comprehending the dangers it faces. (20) It implemented a strategy of appeasement designed to placate Muslims and Muslim supporters in the ruling Labour Party. This was accompanied by the intimidation of members of parliament by the Muslim Council of Britain and other Islamist groups, and the subsequent adoption by the Government of policies that attacked critics for alleged "Islamophobia", and imposed strictly-observed guidelines addressing purported "Muslim sensitivities and appropriate non-inflammatory terminology" in dealing with any issues considered relevant by the Muslim community, including a ban on the phrase "Islamic fundamentalism". (21)

The inevitable outcome of this policy of appeasement was the constraints within which the British security forces operated prior to the July 7, 2005, London terrorist attacks, which left terrorist recruiters free...