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Can Islam reform? Despite my respect for some of those making the attempt, I have expressed my doubts many times. This story illustrates one reason why: the jihad ideology that fuels violence by Muslims against non-Muslims in Iraq and elsewhere is not only not the province of a tiny minority of extremists, but is so deeply embedded in the Islamic consciousness that when reformers try to move away from its violent manifestations, they're accused of disloyalty. Of course, this tendency is even stronger in Saudi Arabia, where these clerics are reaping what they have sown for decades.
From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
LONDON—Fundamentalist Islamic leaders in Saudi Arabia are telling militants intent on fighting "infidels" to join the insurgency in Iraq instead of taking up Osama bin Laden's call to oust the Saudi royal family at home, say Saudi dissidents who monitor theological edicts coming out of the kingdom.Iraq as a battleground offers the solution to a quandary facing Saudi clerics who have to both placate the kingdom's rulers and keep their radical base happy.
"If they preach that there ought to be absolutely no jihad (holy war), they would lose credibility and support among their followers. So what they do is preach jihad — not in Saudi Arabia, but in Iraq," said Abdul-Aziz Khamis, a Saudi rights activist in London. "To them, Iraq is the answer to their dilemma."
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 gave the Saudi government the opportunity to send men there to wage holy war against communism.
It also opened the field for the Saudi regime to spread a rigid form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism. The royal Al Saud family adheres to it, as do Saudi-born bin Laden and his Al Qaeda followers.
This is nonsense. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan led to the Afghan jihad, which the Saudis of course supported, but it is not at all true that they weren't spreading Wahhabism before that.
Posted by Robert at January 25, 2005 7:15 AM
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Point taken, that the Saudi regime has been spreading Wahhabism for a long time, with every extra petrodollar they have.
Still, the Afghan war against the soviets surely gave the Saudi regime huge new opportunities, with U.S. backing, talk about a questionable short term American policy, to demonstrate the success of wahhabi fanaticism against a well armed non-islamic enemy and against non-wahhabi islamic Afghans.
The Saudis will continue to export their wahhabi fanatics, and no doubt Iraq is getting lots, though increasingly with the fear that these fanatical goons, battle hardened, will return to the magic kingdom and bite the hand that feeds them.
So massive repression in the magic kingdom, and lots of one way tickets to Iraq, Chechnya, Europe, America, and various parts of Africa where fanatical islam is pushing hard. Oh, did i forget Malaysia, Indonesia....the list goes on.
This is truly a fight for the future of the planet.
Posted by: dby![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 25, 2005 9:33 AM
Robert:
At about what point did the Saudis really start pumping money into spreading Wahhabism around? Would it be concurrent with the establishment of the Iranian (Shia) theocracy in the late 1970s(which could rival the Saudis' authority over Islam)?
Posted by: waterdragon52 at January 25, 2005 12:53 PM
"It also opened the field for the Saudi regime to spread a rigid form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism" RUBBISH
Ever since the fall of the Ottomans and the expulsion of the Hashemites, the spread of wahhabism has gone on unchallanged.
For centuries wahhabism had been kept in check by the "sacage" ottamans. the British and the Foreign office wahhabophiles changed all that and so began the course of modern day terrorism.
at January 25, 2005 2:54 PM
Can Islam reform?
No way. i say this for a totally different reason than any I see mentioned anywhere.
Islam is NOT 'Abrahmic' and has no relation to Judeo-Christianism at all. Islam probably doesn't originate in Saudi Arabia either. We maintain Islam originated in Babylon and is an idol-worshiping human sacrifice cult. Yes, we maintain that the violence of Islam's jihads or "holy" wars are rooted in the Middle East's sacrifice sects that have gone on there for thousands of years.
We maintain that Islam is a human sacrifice cult that has camouflaged itself by assuming counterfeited elements of Judeo-Christian theology. By focusing on and believeing those counterfeited Judeo-Christian elements the world has been fooled in many ways. Many if not most people believe that Islam's violence is socio-political in origin and can be dealt with on those terms--but alas they can't be.
Reforming Islam to most westerners means removing Islam's violent and genocidal tendencies. What most still do not realize is that in Islam it is the violence, killing, and genocide that are the heart and soul of the religion. They cannot be removed from the faith. Religious killing or human sacrifice form the foundation of the Islamic 'faith' -- without jihad there could be no Islam.
Posted by: pythagoras at January 25, 2005 7:34 PM
Pythagoras:
This is amazing. A confluence of thinking perchance? Cerberus and Charbydis post similar comments at:
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Palestinian Arab Myth.
http://malaysiakini.blogspot.com/
This is the right approach. Expose this paganism that`s the root cause and the world is better off. There has to be outright rejection of their claim to being of the same Book. Literally pulling the rug from under their feet.
Posted by: hutchrun at January 26, 2005 12:31 AM
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