No surprise here. And remember: with Saudi money comes the Saudi ideology. While Wahhabism is not the only violent or supremacist strain of Islam, it is a violent and supremacist strain, and it is the one the Saudis are bankrolling.
“Muslim leaders in pay of Saudis,” by Richard Kerbaj in The Australian, May 19 (thanks to all who sent this in):
SIX Australian-based Muslim clerics who are leaders of the Islamic community in the country are on the payroll of the Saudi Government, receiving allowances of up to $2000 a month.
The Australian can reveal for the first time the identity of the clerics – some paid through the Saudi embassy in Canberra, others directly from Riyadh’s Dawah (preaching) Office – who receive between 3500 and 7000 Saudi riyal ($1975) a month.
The payments to the six – who include former Howard government adviser Amin Hady and Melbourne Somali imam Isse Musse – are part of Saudi Arabia’s multi-billion-dollar campaign to transform its hardline image in the West.
However, Sheik Hady told The Australian there were as many as 14 others in the country being paid by the Saudis…