25. Petrodollar Islam

Supermajors

When the reigning Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was asked about the Saudi-funded spread of Wahhabism, the Washington Post reported that, “he said that investments in mosques and madrassas overseas were rooted in the Cold War, when allies asked Saudi Arabia to use its resources to prevent inroads in Muslim countries by the Soviet Union.”[1] Islam is the world’s fastest growing religion and according to the 2010 German domestic intelligence service annual report, Salafism is the fastest growing Islamic movement in the world.[2] Saudi Arabia emerged as a significant sponsor of Islamic institutions worldwide, including in India, only in the 1970s. The period was marked of intense ideological struggle in the Arab world, including Arab socialism and pan-Arab nationalism under Nasser in Egypt, and the Baathists in Syria and Iraq and various communist parties in numerous Arab states. All called for the overthrow of monarchies in the region, which they saw as servants of the United States and the Zionists. Ayatollah Khomeini, who came to power with the Islamic Revolution of 1979, denounced the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as “anti-Islamic,” claiming that it was in league with “Satanic powers,” and that Wahhabism was a “baseless, superstitious cult” was aimed at destroying Islam from within.[3] As explained by Sikand:

 

Consequently, the Saudis, backed by the Americans, began investing heavily in promoting ‘Wahhabi’ Islam abroad in order to counter the appeal of the Iranian Revolution, both within Saudi Arabia itself and abroad. Stressing the regime’s ‘Islamic’ credentials now came to be relied upon as the principal tool to strengthen it and to stave of challenges from internal as well as external opponents, from Muslims opposed to the regime’s corrupt and dictatorial ways and its close alliance with the imperialist powers, principally the United States.[4]

 

The wealth accumulated by Saudis was achieved not through their own resourcefulness, but by granting concession rights to Western powers to lands they usurped through their treasonous actions against the Muslim world. According to the Sharia, certain natural resources are stipulated to fall under public ownership. Typically, in trade, there are essential goods, and non-essential ones. In Islam, free-enterprise is tolerated for the unrestrained pursuit of non-essential goods. However, for those goods and resources that represent the fundamental needs of the rest of society, they must be state-owned. For example, the Prophet Mohammed said: “People share three things: water, pasture lands, and fire.”[5] Traditional jurists have argued that the above restriction on privatization can be extended to all essential resources that benefit the community as a whole.[6] By “fire” here can be understood all fuels, like electricity, natural gas, oil and so on, suggesting that utilities should be state-owned, to protect against their exploitation, as is exemplified by the modern oil industry, which is at the heart of the fundamental problems that face mankind in our time.

Given their roles as custodians of the sacred precincts of Mecca and Medina, the Saudis are bound to enforce a semblance of Islamic rule to maintain the pretense of legitimacy. As explained by Madawi al-Rasheed in Contesting the Saudi State, referring to the Saudi regime, “under their guidance Wahhabiya ceased to be a religious revivalist Salafi movement and became an apologetic institutionalized religious discourse intimately tied to political authority.”[7] The Saudi scholars were dependent on the state for their positions and authority, and therefore served the state. “The majority of them confirmed political decisions by providing a religious seal of approval for policy matters,” says al-Rasheed.[8] Restricted from expressing any criticism against the state, they compensated by creating a façade of piety through exaggerated and overly oppressive emphasis on performative actions and ritual. As Madawi al-Rasheed explains:

 

Wahhabiyya sanctioned a regime that claims to rule according to Islam but in reality in the twentieth century retain only Islamic rhetoric and external trappings. The latter include public beheadings, excluding women from the public sphere, closing shops for prayer as well as other orchestrated and dramatized displays of religiosity. The exclusion and confinement of women have become a symbol for the piety of the Saudi state. Islam is consequently reduced to this dimension. In reality the regime operates according to personalized political gains rather than religious dogma or national interest.[9]

 

But the Saudis’ dependence on oil and subservience to its Western sponsors ran deep. The Saudis have been able to propagate Wahhabism and Salafism through a large-scale campaign, made possible only through their access to a seemingly limitless flow of petrodollars. It should be obvious that as the world’s superpower and the world’s leading producer of oil respectively, America and Saudi Arabia are entangled in a delicate and mutually inter-dependent relationship. According to an American attaché, “The only ambition of the Saudis is to remain masters at home. To do that, no matter what happens, they need the United States, while internal stability is, for the moment, maintained through a flawless ballet between the religious and police authorities.”[10] In return for guarantees of its continued sovereignty, the Saudis promise the Americans access to their formidable oil reserves. Additionally, the broader ramifications of this arrangement are, as Richard Lebeviere notes in Dollars for Terror, that “this protection also makes it possible to ensure the security of the state of Israel.”[11]

FDR’s proclamation on in 1943, about the American petroleum industry and their relationship with Saudi Arabia would be reaffirmed by every American president, most prominently, in the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine and the 1980 Carter Doctrine. As Richard Labeviere noted sarcastically, the American president and the King of Saudi Arabia not only concluded an “excellent deal,” but “they also secured an unfailing alliance that would lead them, one and the other, and their successors as well, to becoming the godfathers of Islamism.”[12] The oil wealth spewing from the ground in Saudi Arabia—accounting for 11% of world oil production,[13] and 17% of the world’s proven petroleum reserves[14]—ultimately filled the coffers of the Rockefeller Foundation, which along with the Ford Foundation, were the two primary funding fronts of the CIA.[15] Thus were disguised niceties like, just to begin with, the eugenics program, which began in the US before being adopted by the Nazis, regime changes like the overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected President Mossadegh in 1953—organized by repurposed Nazi, Reinhard Gehlen—Operation PBSUCCESS, for the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954; the assassination of Patrice Lumumba of the Congo in 1961; the overthrow and suiciding of Salvador Allende of Chile in 1973; the Strategy of Tension through the fascist Gladio stay-behind networks in Italy, that began with the Piazza Fontana’s bombing in 1969, and culminated in the Bologna train station bombing of 1980 in which 85 people were killed.[16]

However, despite the appearance of the country’s independence, the Rockefellers, primarily through their stewardship of ExxonMobil, continued to effectively control Saudi Arabia. After World War II, ARAMCO was still owned 70 percent by Rockefeller companies—Exxon, Mobil, and SOCAL—and 30 percent by Texaco, and produced all of Saudi oil. Supposedly, the Saudi government took a 25% stake in ARAMCO by 1973, increased it to 60% in 1974, and finally attained full ownership of the company by 1980. Now known as Saudi ARAMCO, it is the world's largest, richest and most valuable company of all time. As Stephen Schwartz explained, in The Two Faces of Islam:

 

The conversion of ARAMCO into a Saudi firm was perhaps the murkiest operation in global business history. Saudi ARAMCO continued its exclusive export contracts with the U.S. corporations that had created it, and American personnel remained in its leading management strata. Saudi-citizen employment by Saudi ARAMCO was slow and was expected to reach 87 percent in the year 2005. The replacement of ARAMCO by Saudi ARAMCO was a remarkable example of international financial sleight-of-hand.[17]

 

ARAMCO became the largest single American enterprise operating outside the US. Shortly after his retirement from his position as board chairman of SOCAL, Otto N. Miller told the US Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations in 1976: “ARAMCO is, by far, the most important and valuable foreign economic interest ever developed by US citizens… the significance of the ARAMCO oil fields… went beyond mere commercial implications… as being of tremendous national importance to our country.”[18] More than half of Saudi oil production was going to the old ARAMCO-Rockefeller consortium, which sold the oil at a profit to whomever they wished, in obedience to Saudi cartel regulations.[19] Moreover, until at least 1988, Exxon and the other US oil giants operated the company, even though it was owned by the Saudis. As of 1990, Exxon still indirectly owned 28.33% of ARAMCO. Board members of ARAMCO continue to include the former chairmen of Exxon and Chevron, both companies descended from Standard Oil.[20]

In 1990, Exxon merged with another Standard Company, Mobil, to form ExxonMobil, which became the largest of the six oil “Supermajors,” the five largest oil companies who replaced the Seven Sisters. In 2005, ExxonMobil was ranked the largest corporation in the world, by market capitalization and second largest by market revenue. Saudi Arabia ranks as the largest exporter of petroleum, accounting for as much as 26% of the world’s proven oil reserves, and produces the largest amount of the world’s oil. The United States is heavily dependent on this industry, as about 40% of the energy consumed by the United States comes from oil.[21] With only 5% of the world’s population, the US is responsible for 25% of the world’s oil consumption.[22] Until 2010, the Americans’ oil expenditures alone constitute 47% of their trade deficit.[23]

 

Sahwa

After Muslim Brotherhood members were shuttled to Saudi Arabia with the assistance of the CIA, beginning in the 1960s, Brotherhood militancy influenced movements within the Kingdom, collectively referred to as al Sahwa al Islamiyya (the Islamic Awakening), or simply, Sahwa. Thus, beginning in the 1960s, with the CIA’s tacit approval, the Salafi became more formally allied to the Wahhabis who became the principal patrons of the Brotherhood, which set up branches in most Arab states.[24] Among them was Mohammed Qutb (1919 – 2014), the younger brother of Sayyed Qutb, who took refuge in Saudi Arabia along with other members of the Muslim Brotherhood. There he edited and published his brother’s books and taught as a professor of Islamic Studies at Saudi universities. While in Saudi Arabia, he conceived of the organization now known as the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), thanks to large donations from the bin Laden family. Osama bin Laden’s brother Omar was at one time its executive director.  

Most importantly, Brotherhood adherents helped build much of Saudi Arabia’s education system and thus shaped the Kingdom’s modern curriculum, which has ensured a steady stream of Sahwa-influenced ideologues ever since.[25] The Saudis eventually complained by attempting to suggest that they had given the Brotherhood refugees shelter following Nasser’s crackdown, but that the Brothers had betrayed their gracious hospitality by fomenting subversion and militancy within the kingdom. However, the Saudis had financed the Muslim Brotherhood almost from the outset. As Robert Dreyfuss described in Devil’s Game: How the United States Unleashed Fundamentalist Islam, “Throughout its entire existence, too, the Muslim Brotherhood had an ace-in-the-hole, namely, the political support and money it received from the Saudi royal family and the Wahhabi establishment.”[26]

The religious clerics are a key tool in maintaining the charade. The leading state-controlled establishment scholars, and the leading authorities of the Salafi movement, have been Shaykh Ibn Baz, Mohammed ibn al-Uthaymeen and Syrian-Albanian Islamic scholar Nassir ad Deen al-Albani (c. 1914 – 1999). Ibn Baz was Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia from 1993 until his death in 1999. In 1966, when Ibn Baz was Vice-President of the Islamic University of Medina, he wrote an article denouncing Riyadh University for teaching that the Earth rotates and orbits the Sun, which he claimed, on the basis of the Quran and the Sunna, was false. As noted by Lauzière, Ibn Baz “was neither the first nor the only Wahhabi scholar to propound this view, but no one matched his insistence in decrying the rotation of the earth.”[27] The arguments he employed were reminiscent of those advanced by the teachers at the Prophet’s mosque in Medina, who, in the late 1920s, maintained that the earth was flat.[28] Ibn Baz is often said to have believed that the Earth was flat as well.[29] Ibn Baz declared that anyone who claimed that both the sun and the earth moved in space was also a Kafir (“unbeliever”).[30] In 1985, Ibn Baz was finally convinced to the contrary, when Prince Sultan bin Salman returned home after a week aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery to tell him that he had seen the Earth rotate.[31]

Al Albani began his career by becoming influenced by articles in al Manar, the mouthpiece of Rashid Rida. Al Albani also studied under a student of Qasimi of Damascus, who was among the chief Revivalists responsible for reviving Ibn Taymiyyah’s reputation. Albani was first expelled from Syria, and then accepted a post in Saudi Arabia on the invitation of Ibn Baz who would continue to support him throughout his career. Al Albani’s trouble with the Saudis began when his pronouncements against Taqlid as “blind following” went to the extent that he even criticized the Saudis’ partial adherence to the Hanbali tradition. He went so far as to declare that the founder of Wahhabism himself, Ibn Abdul Wahhab, was not a true “Salafi” for following the Hanbali Madhhab. To al Albani, who claimed to follow, like the neo-Ahl-i Hadith of India, the medieval school of the same name, Hadith alone can provide answers to matters not found in the Quran, without relying on the Madhhabs.[32] To al Albani, the mother of all religious sciences therefore becomes the “science of hadith,” through which he claimed to have identified over five thousand among them to be suspect.

Despite their differences with him otherwise, the Saudi state made use of al Albani’s criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood to lend supposed religious authority to their agenda. While the Wahhabi religious establishment, including Ibn Baz himself, had been in the habit of praising Sayyid Qutb as a “martyr,” al Albani was the first among them to dare to criticize him, as well as Hassan al Banna. Al Albani’s primary complaint against the Brotherhood was that they placed too much emphasis on “politics” instead of knowledge (Ilm) and creed (Aqidah). Essentially, al Albani provided the primary “religious” justification for the regime, by characterizing all criticism of the state as futile banter, which disregarded the more pressing issue of reforming society which had fallen away from a “pure” understanding of Islam, in the perverted Wahhabi sense.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi was considered one of the proponents of the Sahwa in the 1970s.[33] A close friend of Qaradawi was Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy (1928 – 2010). In 1980, Tantawy became chief of the Tafsir branch of the Postgraduate studies branch at the Islamic University of Madinah. He returned to Egypt in 1985, when he became Dean of the Faculty of Ausol Aldeen at the prestigious Alexandria Religious Institute. From 1986 to 1996, he was the Grand Mufti of Egypt. In 1996, he was appointed as the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, a position he retained until his death in 2010. Tantawy believes that Saudi Arabia is the model country for respecting human rights stating in June 2000:

 

Saudi Arabia leads the world in the protection of human rights because it protects them according to the shari’a of God… Everyone knows that Saudi Arabia is the leading country for the application of human rights in Islam in a just and objective fashion, with no aggression and no prejudice.[34]

 

In 1989, the Egyptian government’s support for Western-style, interest-based banking—known as Riba and denounced in the Quran as a sin—was under heavy criticism by the expanding Islamic finance movement. In response to a government request for a ruling, Tantawy issued a Fatwa that described some forms of financial interest as tolerable, including those paid by government bonds and those on ordinary savings accounts. Tantawy declared that charging interest on such bank loans was in fact ribh, or just gaining profit, which was permissible. The Fatwa eventually opened the way for the development of a mortgage industry. He moved on to popular culture, backing television game shows such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire.[35]

According to The Telegraph, referring to Tantawy: “As the head of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the pre-eminent seat of learning in the Sunni Muslim world, he argued for secular politics, advancement of women’s rights and engagement with both the West and Israel.”[36] In 2008, Tantawy attempted to deny shaking hands with Shimon Peres, then President of Israeli, at a United Nations interfaith forum. When a photograph of the clearly visible firm handclasp was published, Tantawy claimed he had failed to recognize Peres. In late 2009, after issuing a Fatwa allowing girls in France to go uncovered, in accordance with the ban there on the Hijab in schools, Tantawy launched a campaign against the Niqab, the full-face veil increasingly worn by women in Egypt, by personally tearing away one worn by a teenage girl at a school affiliated to Al-Azhar where he was visiting, much to the shock of all involved. Tantawy then promised to issue a Fatwa against Niqab, to officially ban any person wearing one from entering schools dependent on Al-Azhar University.[37]

Qaradawi was best known for his TV program, ash-Sharia wal-Hayat (“Sharia and Life”), broadcast on Al Jazeera, which has an estimated audience of sixty million worldwide. He was also the founder of a popular website, IslamOnline, for which he now serves as chief religious scholar. Given his media profile, Qaradawi’s views tend to be contradictory so as to, at times, attempt to appease Western criticisms of Islam, while at others exemplifying the type of extremism on which those same criticisms are founded. This is often reflective of the Muslim Brotherhood’s varying political aspirations. Because they seek success through the democratic process in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood are unable to express their more radical views openly, despite their support for terrorism elsewhere. Similarly, Qaradawi has been guilty of anti-Semitic pronouncements and of denouncing suicide-bombing, unless perpetrated by Palestinians. He condones suicide attacks on all Israelis including women, since Israeli society is “completely military” and does not include any “civilians.”[38] He also considers pregnant women and their unborn children to be valid targets, as the babies could grow up to join the Israeli Army.[39] And yet, Qaradawi has spoken in favor of democracy in the Muslim world. On February 22, 2011, he held an exclusive interview with OnIslam.net, dismissing the allegation that he wanted a religious state established in Egypt: “On the contrary, my speech supported establishing a civil state with a religious background, I am totally against theocracy. We are not a state for mullahs.[40]

 

Global Salafism 

According to journalist Dawood al-Shirian, the Saudi Arabian government, foundations and private sources, provide “90% of the expenses of the entire faith,” throughout the Muslim World.[41] The European Parliament quotes an estimate of $10 billion being spent by Saudi Arabia to promote Salafism through charitable foundations such as the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), the al-Haramain Foundation, the Medical Emergency Relief Charity (MERC), World Muslim League and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY).[42] According to the World Bank, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates provided official development assistance (ODA) to poor countries, averaging 1.5% of their gross national income (GNI) from 1973 to 2008, about five times the average assistance provided by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member states such as the United States.[43] From 1975 to 2005, the Saudi government donated £49 billion in aid, the most per capita of any donor country per capita.[44]

A pitiful inheritor of Saudi influence is the Islamic community of India, which had long been rife with internecine feuds, sullied with incessant back-and-forth accusations of “Takfir” (unbelief), between the sects of Barelvis, Deobandis and Ahl-i Hadith. The sort of Islam that the Saudis began aggressively promoting abroad, including India, had a number of characteristic features, as explained by Sikand, in his article on the subject, titled “Ulema Rivalries and the Saudi Connection”:

 

It was extremely literalist; it was rigidly and narrowly defined, being concerned particularly with issues of “correct” ritual and belief, rather than with wider social and political issues; it was viciously sectarian, branding dissenting groups, such as Shi’as and followers of the Sufis as “enemies” of Islam; and, finally, it was explicitly and fiercely critical of ideologies and groups, Muslim as well as other, that were regarded as political threats to the Saudi regime. Accordingly, these were routinely castigated as ploys of the “enemies of Islam.”[45]

 

Nevertheless, some groups within the Deobandi movement became co-opted by the Saudi-inspired Wahhabism and Salafism. This Deobandi sub-sect is associated with the groups that the state of Pakistan has long declared terrorist organizations: Sipah-e Sahaba Pakistan, now known as Ahl-e Sunnat Wal Jamahat (ASWJ), also operating as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jundullah; and Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Almost all of these banned organizations are Deobandi, and practice Takfir, denouncing Sufi and Shiah, Barelvis and other Islamic sects as non-Muslims, as well as promoting the concept of violent Jihad against secular governments in the West and even in Muslim majority countries. This Deobandi sub-sect is found primarily in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and has since 1950s spread to the United Kingdom, United States and has also a presence in South Africa. In the UK, according to The Times, about 600 of Britain’s nearly 1,500 mosques are run by Deobandi affiliated clerics, and 17 of the country’s 26 Islamic seminaries follow Deobandi teachings, producing 80% of all domestically trained Muslim clerics. In addition, up to 100 mosques are run by Salafi Wahhabi affiliated clerics. Many Deobandi and Salafi Wahhabi mosques in the UK as well in the US and other countries receive regular funding from Saudi Arabia, UAE or Qatar.[46]

More than 1,500 Mosques were built around the world from 1975 to 2000, paid for by Saudi money. The Saudi-headquartered and financed Muslim World League played a pioneering role in supporting Islamic associations, mosques, and investment plans for the future. It opened offices in “every area of the world where Muslims lived.”[47] In mosques throughout the world “from the African plains to the rice paddies of Indonesia and the Muslim immigrant high-rise housing projects of European cities, the same books could be found,” paid for by Saudi Arabian government.[48] The Islamic University of Madinah—which was established as an alternative to the famous and once-respected Al-Azhar in Cairo—was intended to educate students from across the Muslim world, and eventually 85% of its student body was non-Saudi, making it an import tool for spreading Salafism internationally.[49] Many of Egypt’s future Ulama attended the university. Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy spent four years at the Islamic University.[50] Saudi funding to al-Azhar center of Islamic learning, has been credited with causing that university to adopt an increasingly religiously conservative approach.[51]

Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s Ismail-influenced translation of the Quran has become among the most widely known English translations, due in large part to its distribution and subsidization by Saudi Arabia.[52] In 1980, after assessing the various translations in print at the time, four high-level committees under the General Presidency of the Department of Islamic Research chose Ali’s translation and commentary as the best available, “for its distinguishing characteristics, such as a highly elegant style, a choice of words close to the meaning of the original text, accompanied by scholarly notes and commentaries.”[53] After significant revisions, a large hardback edition was printed in 1985 by the King Fahd Holy Qur’an Printing Complex, according to Royal Decree No. 12412.[54] This edition, however, did not credit Yusuf Ali as the translator on the title page.

Now the most widely disseminated Quran throughout the English-speaking world, was a new translation, The Noble Qur’an in the English Language, by Muhammad Taqi al-Din al-Hilali and Muhammad Muhsin Khan, was meant to replace the Yusuf Ali edition, and had the seal of approval from both the University of Medina and the Saudi Dar al-Ifta. It features commentaries of Tabari, Qurtubi and Ibn Taymiyyah’s student, Ibn Kathir.[55] In 1968, Bin Baz wrote to Al-Hilali—a friend of Rashid Rida, Mufti al-Husseini and a fellow Nazi-sympathizer with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood—inviting him to take up a teaching position at Islamic University of Madinah, where Bin Baz was the president. Al-Hilali did not dare contradict Ibn Baz on the question of heliocentrism. In the summer of 1968, as al-Hilali was waiting for confirmation of his appointment, he wrote to Ibn Baz and assured him of his support against those critics who denied the movement of the sun “without having ever attended a single lesson of astronomy.”[56] Al-Hilali accepted the appointment, living in Saudi Arabia between 1968 and 1974. The private correspondence between him and Bin Baz in the 1970s and 1980s confirms that Wahhabi institutions bankrolled al-Hilali and his associates, mostly in Morocco but also in countries such as France, Belgium, and India, where al-Hilali traveled regularly.[57]

An influential personality educated in Saudi Arabia is Bilal Philips, Jamaican-born Canadian convert and chancellor of the International Open University, who now lives in Qatar. Philips had encountered Islam several times in his travels, but the book that won him over was Islam, The Misunderstood Religion by Muhammad Qutb.[58] Philips converted to Islam in February 1972, in the presence of Abdullah Hakim Quick. Philips received his BA from the Islamic University of Madinah and his MA in Aqidah from the King Saud University in Riyadh, then completed his 1993 PhD thesis, “Exorcism in Islam.”[59] He has written, translated and commented on over 50 Islamic books and has appeared or presented on numerous national and satellite television channels, including Saudi TV, Sharjah TV, Ajman TV, Islam Channel, Huda TV, and Peace TV.[60] Throughout his career, Philips has become the subject of many controversies, ultimately resulting in him being banned from entering the United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark and Kenya, banned from re-entering Germany, ordered to leave Bangladesh, and deported from the Philippines. He was also named by the US government as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

One of Philips’s works entitled The Fundamentals of Tauheed has been described as “extremist” by the United Kingdom prison service. As a consequence, this book has now been removed and banned from prisons.[61] In the book, Philips criticizes the beliefs of pantheism to defend the anthropomorphic ideas of Wahhabism, regarding God as “totally separate from, and above His creation.”[62] Among his proofs is that if God is “everywhere” then that would “imply that His essence could be found in filth and filthy places.”[63] He also cites the example of the Prophet’s Miraj to the seventh heaven, as proof that “if Allah were everywhere there would have been no need for the Prophet (as) to go anywhere.”[64] As is typical, he provides a literalist interpretation of the numerous verses in the Quran that state that God is “above” His creation.[65] Finally, he provides a further literal interpretation of a Hadith where the Prophet asks a servant girl where is God, where she replied “above the sky,” so he ordered her to be freed.[66]

One of the most popular Islamic preachers is Indian “televangelist,” Zakir Naik.[67] Naik said in 2006 that he was inspired by Ahmed Deedat (1918 – 2005), a South African and Indian self-taught Muslim orator on Comparative Religion whom he met in 1987.[68] Deedat was best known as a Muslim missionary, who held numerous inter-religious public debates with evangelical Christians, as well as video lectures on Islam, Christianity, and the Bible. Deedat was awarded the King Faisal International Prize in 1986 for his fifty years of missionary work. Naik has also gotten at least some publicity and funds in the form of Islamic awards from Saudi and other Gulf states. His Peace TV channel, reaches a reported 100 million viewers. According to Indian journalist Shoaib Daniyal, Naik’s “massive popularity amongst India’s English-speaking Muslims” is a reflection of “how deep Salafism has spread its roots.”[69] Naik is currently a wanted fugitive in India, where, in 2016, the authorities charged Naik for money laundering while he was abroad in Malaysia; Naik did not return to India and became a permanent resident of Malaysia. Naik denies all charges. The National Investigation Agency attempted to issue an Interpol red notice for his arrest, which was refused due to insufficient evidence.[70]

 

Guardians of the Holy Places 

In a lecture to a Muslim audience, Philips explained, “among the things that we’re faced with extreme views is also the madhab,” and defended the Saudi destruction of the Maqamat of the four Madhabs around the Kabbah in 1925, purportedly to enforce unity and thereby “brought great good to the Ummah.”[71] Since then, according to estimates from the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation in London, over 98% of the Kingdom’s historical and religious sites have been destroyed since 1985. “It’s as if they wanted to wipe out history,” remarked Ali Al-Ahmed, of the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, D.C.[72] “The authorities are trying to destroy anything in Mecca that is associated with the prophet’s life,” says Irfan al-Alawi, director of the UK-based Islamic Heritage Research Foundation, who recently returned from a trip to the city. “They have already bulldozed the house of his wife, his grandson and his companion – and now they are coming for his birthplace. And for what? Yet more seven-star hotels.”[73]

Particularly egregious is the hideous Mecca Royal Clock Towers, looming over the Masjid al-Haram, the holiest site in Islam, and described accurately by one commentator as “probably the most hideous monstrosity and insult to elegance and taste in human architectural history.”[74] The Towers is a complex 300 meters away from the Great Mosque of Mecca, built by the Binladin Group, is the world’s second most expensive building, with the total cost of construction totaling US$15 billion, featuring a five-story shopping mall, luxury hotels and a parking garage. The complex was built after the demolition of the Ajyad Fortress, the eighteenth-century Ottoman citadel on top of a hill overlooking the Grand Mosque. The destruction of the historically significant site in 2002 by the Saudi government sparked an outcry and a strong reaction from Turkey.[75] As a testament to its sponsors, the tower features a Big Ben-like clock with the word “Allah” in Arabic above it.[76]

The destruction of Islamic heritage is part of a $21 billion project, launched in 2011, purportedly designed to meet the challenges of accommodating the millions of pilgrims who visit Mecca and Medina every year.[77] The house of the Prophet’s first wife, Khadijah has made way a block of 1,400 public lavatories. Muslims believe he received some of the first revelations there. It was also where his children Zainab bint Muhammad, Ruqayyah bint Muhammad, Umm Kulthum bint Muhammad, Fatimah, Qasim and Abd-Allah ibn Muhammad were born. A Hilton hotel stands on the site of the house of Islam’s first caliph, Abu Bakr. Bayt al-Mawlid (“House of the Birth”), where Muhammad is believed to have been born in 570, was originally turned into a library, it now lies under a rundown building which was built 70 years ago as a compromise after Wahhabi clerics called for it to be demolished. The building now bears a sign in five languages declaring: “There is no proof that prophet Muhammad was born in this place, so it is forbidden to make this place specific for praying, supplicating or get blessing.”[78] Also threatened is a 1,400-year-old well, Bir e Tuwa, where the prophet spent a night, now surrounded by rubble from buildings that have been razed for hotels. In the Grand Mosque itself, a set of 500-year-old stone columns and vaults, inscribed with calligraphic poetry recounting Muhammad's journeys and associated sites of pilgrimage, have now been demolished to make room for a vast extension.[79]

After the 2004 Hajj, Saudi authorities replaced the three Jamarat, obelisks sitting in circular surrounds, where Hajj pilgrims before the “Stoning of the Devil” by throwing pebbles at them, with 26-metre-long walls, claiming it was to protect the safety of the pilgrims. Many were apparently accidentally throwing pebbles at people on the other side, although the practice had been conducted for nearly 1300 years without such complaints. To allow easier access to the Jamarat, a single-tiered pedestrian bridge called the Jamaraat Bridge was built around them, allowing pilgrims to throw stones from either ground level or from the bridge. The obelisk is an ancient Egyptian ritual and phallic structure dedicated to the god Osiris, since referred to as “Cleopatra’s Needle.” Famous examples included the Vatican obelisk at Saint Peter's Square and the Washington Monument.

The nearly full list of sites destroyed by the Saudis include: Mosque of al-Manaratain; destroyed by dynamite on August 13, 2002; Mosque of Abu Rasheed; Salman al-Farsi Mosque, in Medina; Raj’at ash-Shams Mosque, in Medina; Mosque and tomb of Hamza at Mount Uhud; Jannat al-Mu’alla, the ancient cemetery at Mecca; Tombs of Hamza and other casualties of the Battle of Uhud were demolished at Mount Uhud; Dar Al-Arqam, the first Islamic school where Muhammad taught. It now lies under the extension of the Masjid Al-Haram of Mecca; Mashrubat Umm Ibrahim, built to mark the location of the house where Muhammad’s son, Ibrahim, was born to Mariah; Dome which served as a canopy over the Well of Zamzam; House of Imam Jafar al-Sadiq, in Medina. Jafar as Sadiq, the founder of the Jafari school of jurisprudence in Shiah Islam, is also revered by Sunni Muslims as a reliable transmitter of hadith, and a teacher to the Sunni scholars Abu Hanifa and Malik ibn Anas, the namesakes of the Hanafi and Maliki Madhabs; the Mahalla complex of Banu Hashim, an Arab clan within the Quraysh tribe to which the Islamic prophet Muhammad Ibn Abdullah belonged; House of Ali where Hasan and Husayn were born; The house of Hamza, the foster brother, paternal uncle, maternal second-cousin, and companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, who was martyred at the Battle of Uhud.

 


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[2] AFP. “Uproar in Germany Over Salafi Drive to Hand Out Millions of Qurans,” Assyrian International News Agency, (April 16, 2012).

[3] Yoginder Singh Sikand. “Ulema Rivalries and the Saudi Connection.” Retrieved from https://sunninews.wordpress.com/2010/04/14/wahabiahle-hadith-deobandi-and-saudi-connection/

[4] Yoginder Singh Sikand. “Ulema Rivalries and the Saudi Connection.” Retrieved from https://sunninews.wordpress.com/2010/04/14/wahabiahle-hadith-deobandi-and-saudi-connection/

[5] Narrated in Abu Daud, & Ibn Majah

[6] "Fundamentals of Islamic Economic System,” MuslimTents.com [http://www.muslimtents.com/shaufi/b16/b16_19.htm]

[7] Madawi Al-Rasheed. Contesting the Saudi State: Islamic Voices from a New Generation (Cambridge: Cambrige University Press, 2007), p. 32.

[8] Ibd. p. 33.

[9] Ibid. p. 4.

[10] Richard Labeviere. Dollars for Terror: The United States and Islam (Algora Publishing, 2000).

[11] p. 41.

[12] Dollars for Terror, (New York: Algora Publishing. 2000). p. 41.

[13] “What countries are the top producers and consumers of oil?” US Energy Information Adminisration. Retrieved from https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=709&t=6

[14] “Saudi Arabia facts and figures” OPEC. Retrieved from https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/169.htm

[15] Stonor Saunders. The Cultural Cold War.

[16] Daniele Ganser. Nato’s Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe, (London: Routledge, 2005)

[17] Stephen Schwartz, The Two Face of Islam: The House of Sa'ud from Tradition to Terror (New York: Randcom House, 2002) p. 122.

[18] Cited in Holden. The House of Saud, p. 314.

[19] Murray Rothbard, “Mr. Bush’s War,” LewRockwell.com, (October 1990).

[20] Dean Henderson, “ARAMCO & The House Of Saud,” (February 15, 2011) [http://deanhenderson.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/ARAMCO-the-house-of-saud/]

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[24] Martin A. Lee. “The CIA and The Muslim Brotherhood: How the CIA Set The Stage for September 11." Razor Magazine (2004).

[25] Stéphane Lacroix. “Fundamentalist Islam at a Crossroads,” SUSRIS (June 6, 2008).

[26] p. 55.

[27] Lauzière. The Making of Salafism, p. 207.

[28] Lauzière. The Making of Salafism, p. 207.

[29] Robert Lacey. Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia (Penguin Publishing Group, 2009), pp. 89–90, 352.

[30] Lauzière. The Making of Salafism, p. 209.

[31] Mark Weston. Prophets and Princes: Saudi Arabia from Muhammad to the Present (John Wiley & Sons, 2008), p. 196.

[32] Stephane Lacroix. Global Salafism, p. 64.

[33] Bettinia Gräf. “Qaradawi and the Struggle for Modern Islam.” New Lines Magazine (October 25, 2022). Retrieved from https://newlinesmag.com/first-person/qaradawi-and-the-struggle-for-modern-islam/

[34] Robert R. Reilly. The Closing of the Muslim Mind (Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2010), pp. 135–136.

[35] Sheikh Mohammed Sayyid Tantawi. Telegraph.co.uk, dated 7:16 pm GMT 11 March 2010 Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/religion-obituaries/7423395/Sheikh-Mohammed-Sayyid-Tantawi.html

[36] Sheikh Mohammed Sayyid Tantawi. Telegraph.co.uk, dated 7:16 pm GMT 11 March 2010 Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/religion-obituaries/7423395/Sheikh-Mohammed-Sayyid-Tantawi.html

[37] Sheikh Mohammed Sayyid Tantawi. Telegraph.co.uk, dated 7:16 pm GMT 11 March 2010 Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/religion-obituaries/7423395/Sheikh-Mohammed-Sayyid-Tantawi.html

[38] “Qaradawi Criticizes Al-Azhar for Condemning Jerusalem Attacks.” Islamonline. Retrieved from http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2001-12/05/article6.shtml

[39] “Stop Terror Sheikhs, Muslim Academics Demand.” Archive.arabnews.com. Retrieved 2010-04-11.

[40] Muhammad Zidan, Abdel Hadi Abu Taleb. “Govt Pressures Ban Qaradawi From Egypt TV,” (February 22, 2011). OnIslam.net. Retrieved from http://www.onislam.net/english/news/africa/451164-govt-pressures-ban-qaradawi-from-egypt-tv.html

[41] Dawood al-Shirian. “What Is Saudi Arabia Going to Do?” Al-Hayat (May 19, 2003).

[42] “THE INVOLVEMENT OF SALAFISM/WAHHABISM IN THE SUPPORT AND SUPPLY OF ARMS TO REBEL GROUPS AROUND THE WORLD” (PDF). European Parliament – DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR EXTERNAL POLICIES OF THE UNION (June 2013). Retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/etudes/join/2013/457137/EXPO-AFET_ET(2013)457137_EN.pdf

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[44] Jack Barton. “Saudis donate aid to non-Muslims” The Telegraph (March 26, 2006).

[45] Yoginder Singh Sikand. “Ulema Rivalries and the Saudi Connection.” Retrieved from https://sunninews.wordpress.com/2010/04/14/wahabiahle-hadith-deobandi-and-saudi-connection/

[46] “Who are the Takfiri Islamist extremists in Pakistan.” Islam and Diversity (May 3, 2020). Retrieved from https://islamanddiversity.org/2020/05/03/who-are-the-takfiri/

[47] Gilles Kepel. Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam (I.B. Tauris, 2006), p. 72.

[48] Gilles Kepel. Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam (I.B. Tauris, 2006), p. 72.

[49] Al-Jazira (September 7, 2001).

[50] Judith Miller. God has Ninety-Nine Names: Reporting from a Militant Middle East (New York: Touchstone Books, 1996), p. 79.

[51] Judith Miller. God has Ninety-Nine Names: Reporting from a Militant Middle East (New York: Touchstone Books, 1996), p. 79.

[52] Khaleel Mohammed. “Assessing English Translations of the Qur'an.” Middle East Quarterly, 12: 2 (Spring 2005). Retrieved from https://www.meforum.org/middle-east-quarterly/assessing-english-translations-of-the-quran

[53] The Holy Quran: English Translation of the meanings and Commentary (Mushaf Al-Madinah An-Nabawiyah, 1985), p. vi.

[54] The Holy Quran: English Translation of the meanings and Commentary (Mushaf Al-Madinah An-Nabawiyah, 1985), p. vi.

[55] Khaleel Mohammed. “Assessing English Translations of the Qur’an.” Middle East Quarterly, 12: 2 (Spring 2005). Retrieved from https://www.meforum.org/middle-east-quarterly/assessing-english-translations-of-the-quran

[56] Lauzière. The Making of Salafism, p. 208.

[57] Lauzière. The Making of Salafism, p. 214.

[58] J. M. Berger. Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam (Potomac Books, 2011), p 51.

[59] WorldCat library listing: Exorcism in Islam (Book, 1993) | University of Wales, Trinity St. David, Lampeter Campus [http://tsd-l.worldcat.org/title/exorcism-in-islam/oclc/669684809&referer=brief_results

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[62] Bilal Philips. The Fundamentals of Tawheed (International Publishing House), p. 139.

[63] Bilal Philips. The Fundamentals of Tawheed (International Publishing House)p. 140.

[64] Bilal Philips. The Fundamentals of Tawheed (International Publishing House)p. 142.

[65] Bilal Philips. The Fundamentals of Tawheed (International Publishing House)p. 142.

[66] Bilal Philips. The Fundamentals of Tawheed (International Publishing House)p. 142.

[67] Christopher Hope. “Home secretary Theresa May bans radical preacher Zakir Naik from entering UK.” The Daily Telegraph (June 18, 2010).

[68] Siraj Wahab. “Spreading God’s Word Is His Mission.” Arab News (July 1, 2006).

[69] Shoaib Daniyal. “Why a Saudi award for televangelist Zakir Naik is bad news for India’s Muslims.” (March 10, 2015) Retrieved from http://scroll.in/article/712341/why-a-saudi-award-for-televangelist-zakir-naik-is-bad-news-for-indias-muslims

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[72] Carla Power. “Saudi Arabia Bulldozes Over Its Heritage.” Tablet (November 14, 2014). Retrieved from https://time.com/3584585/saudi-arabia-bulldozes-over-its-heritage/

[73] Oliver Wainwright. “As the Hajj begins, the destruction of Mecca's heritage continues.” The Guardian (October 14, 2013). Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/14/as-the-hajj-begins-the-destruction-of-meccas-heritage-continues

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[75] “Historic Makkah fortress demolished.” Arab News (January 9, 2002). Retrieved from http://www.arabnews.com/node/217526

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[77] Carla Power. “Saudi Arabia Bulldozes Over Its Heritage.” Tablet (November 14, 2014). Retrieved from https://time.com/3584585/saudi-arabia-bulldozes-over-its-heritage/

[78] Oliver Wainwright. “As the Hajj begins, the destruction of Mecca's heritage continues.” The Guardian (October 14, 2013). Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/14/as-the-hajj-begins-the-destruction-of-meccas-heritage-continues

[79] Oliver Wainwright. “As the Hajj begins, the destruction of Mecca's heritage continues.” The Guardian (October 14, 2013). Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/14/as-the-hajj-begins-the-destruction-of-meccas-heritage-continues

Divide & Conquer