Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Exporting terrorism? A look at the Saudis and Wahhabism
GV-Wire-1
By gvwire
Published 8 years ago on
February 24, 2017

Share

Saudi Arabia is known as world’s largest oil exporter, processing 18% of the world’s oil. Saudi Arabia is also known as the home of 15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists. There is something else exported out of Saudi Arabia that some consider more dangerous: the religious view “Wahhabism.”

Founded by Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab in the 18th Century, it was an attempt to “purify” Islam. It is the state-funded religion of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. “Wahhabism is a literalist interpretation of Islam. It is a very intolerant interpretation of Islam. It is against anybody that might slightly disagree with their ideologies,” says Reza Nekumanesh, director of the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno.

“They are an intolerant cult that seeks to destroy anything that disagrees with them,” he continued. “Muslims who disagree with them are seen as heretics, and thus their life is no longer sanctified.”

“I would not even like to call Wahhabism a sect. I would like to call it some sort of cult that follows a cultic figure from a couple centuries ago. Being the state funded religion in Saudi Arabia has had voice and the ability to project that cult, cultic voice throughout the world through their money and influence through places like Afghanistan and Pakistan and other parts of the world,” Nekumanesh continued.

In 2003, a Homeland Security subcommittee of the U.S. Senate met to discuss the growing Wahhabi influence in the United States. “The problem we are looking at today is the State-sponsored doctrine and funding of an extremist ideology that provides the recruiting grounds, support infrastructure and monetary life blood of today’s international terrorists. The extremist ideology is Wahhabism, a major force behind terrorist groups, like al Qaeda,” then Arizona Senator Jon Kyl (R) said.

It was a bi-partisan hearing. “The Wahhabi presence in the United States is a foreboding one that has potentially harmful and far-reaching consequences for our Nation’s mosques, schools, prisons and even our military,” said Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York.

Later in that hearing, Stephen Schwartz, then of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noted the conflicted nature of the Saudi’s relationship with the U.S. “Wahhabi Saudi policy has always been two-faced. That is, at the same time as the Wahhabis preach hostility and violence, first against non-Wahhabi Muslims, they maintain a policy of alliance with Western military powers, Britain, then the U.S. and France, to ensure their control over the Arabian Peninsula.”

So, why does Saudi Araba have good relations with the U.S.? “Saudi is the number one energy power in the world,” Schwartz, now with the Center of Islamic Pluralism explains. “They are also the richest Muslim country in the world and they are the guardians of the holy sites. That makes them essentially the top dog in the Muslim world. They don’t want to risk that.”

Perhaps, it is because we are one of their top customers.

Saudi Arabia’s top export partners by dollar Top import by dollar
China, $44.2B

Japan, $42.5B

United States, $41.8B

South Korea, $33.1B

India, $30B

China, $20.5B

United States, $15.4B

India, $13B

Germany, $11.5B

South Korea, $8.29B

 

Source: Observatory of Economic Complexity

Saudi Arabia is one of the top arms buyers from the U.S., and the U.S. is the top arms seller to the kingdom, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

“ISIS is Wahhabi, al-Qaeda is Wahhabi, the Taliban is Wahhabi…Bin-Laden was Wahhabi. When we think of real problems, real criminals that have enacted terror upon our world, we don’t have to look farther than the state-funded religion of Saudi Arabia,” Nekumanesh says.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order restricting travel by citizens from Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Yemen.

No Americans were killed in the United States by nationals from those countries.

How many Americans were killed in the United States by nationals form Saudi Arabia, Egypt and U.A.E.?

2,369, 162 and 314 respectively, according to the Cato Institute.

None of those countries were on the travel ban.

E-mail GV Wire

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Yastrzemski and Chapman Homers Help Giants Rally Past the Brewers

DON'T MISS

Fresno City Council Finally Passes a Tough Smoke Shop Ordinance

DON'T MISS

Fresno Unified Trustee Wittrup Says District Had Stronger Candidates Than Misty Her

DON'T MISS

Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say

DON'T MISS

Lights, Camera, Board Vote: Fresno Unified’s Carefully Choreographed Production

DON'T MISS

US Farm Agency Withdraws Proposal Aimed at Lowering Salmonella Risks in Poultry

DON'T MISS

On Major Economic Decisions, Trump Blinks, and Then Blinks Again

DON'T MISS

Candi Is the Dandy to Add a Little Sweetness to Your Life

DON'T MISS

How Trump Tariffs Could Upend California Farms, Wine Businesses, and Ports

DON'T MISS

Tulare Man Sentenced to State Prison for DUI Crash That Injured Two Women

UP NEXT

Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say

UP NEXT

Candi Is the Dandy to Add a Little Sweetness to Your Life

UP NEXT

Two From Search Group That Uncovered Mexico’s ‘Ranch of Horror’ Killed

UP NEXT

Don’t Miss Out! Tower District’s Porchfest Festival Is Saturday

UP NEXT

Fresno Stabbing Leaves Son Dead, Father Charged With Murder

UP NEXT

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Jonathan Scott Riester

UP NEXT

Israeli Fire Kills at Least 44 People in Gaza, Hits a Police Station

UP NEXT

18-Year-Old Dies After Shooting Outside Clovis Restaurant

UP NEXT

Trump Tells Putin to ‘STOP’ After Russian Attacks Kills 10 in Kyiv

UP NEXT

Five Arrested in Fresno County Robbery Spree. Some Linked to Venezuelan Gang

Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say

9 hours ago

Lights, Camera, Board Vote: Fresno Unified’s Carefully Choreographed Production

9 hours ago

US Farm Agency Withdraws Proposal Aimed at Lowering Salmonella Risks in Poultry

9 hours ago

On Major Economic Decisions, Trump Blinks, and Then Blinks Again

10 hours ago

Candi Is the Dandy to Add a Little Sweetness to Your Life

10 hours ago

How Trump Tariffs Could Upend California Farms, Wine Businesses, and Ports

10 hours ago

Tulare Man Sentenced to State Prison for DUI Crash That Injured Two Women

11 hours ago

Judge Partly Blocks Trump Order Seeking to Overhaul US Elections

12 hours ago

Two From Search Group That Uncovered Mexico’s ‘Ranch of Horror’ Killed

12 hours ago

US Warns States They Could Lose Transportation Funding Over Immigration, DEI Policies

12 hours ago

Yastrzemski and Chapman Homers Help Giants Rally Past the Brewers

SAN FRANCISCO — Mike Yastrzemski and Matt Chapman homered as the San Francisco Giants rallied to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-5 on Thursday ...

6 hours ago

6 hours ago

Yastrzemski and Chapman Homers Help Giants Rally Past the Brewers

7 hours ago

Fresno City Council Finally Passes a Tough Smoke Shop Ordinance

8 hours ago

Fresno Unified Trustee Wittrup Says District Had Stronger Candidates Than Misty Her

President Donald Trump delivers remarks during an 'Unleashing American Energy' event at the Department of Energy in Washington, U.S., June 29, 2017. (REUTERS File)
9 hours ago

Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say

9 hours ago

Lights, Camera, Board Vote: Fresno Unified’s Carefully Choreographed Production

Chickens sit at a poultry farm. March 12, 2025. (REUTERS/Diego Vara/File Photo)
9 hours ago

US Farm Agency Withdraws Proposal Aimed at Lowering Salmonella Risks in Poultry

10 hours ago

On Major Economic Decisions, Trump Blinks, and Then Blinks Again

Candi, GV Wire's Adoptable Cat of the Week
10 hours ago

Candi Is the Dandy to Add a Little Sweetness to Your Life

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend