J. Barkley Rosser — On The Relationship Between Wahhabism And Salafism

Backgrounder. "You can't tell the players without a scorecard."

Econospeak
On The Relationship Between Wahhabism And Salafism

J. Barkley Rosser | Professor of Economics and Business Administration James Madison University

See also

An account by an orthodox Sunni.

As-Sunnah Foundation of America

Wahhabism: Understanding The Roots And Role Models Of Islamic Extremism 

Zubair Qamar, condensed and edited by ASFA staff

Then there is the Sunni-Shi'a divide.

Al-Islam.org  — Shiite Encyclopedia

The Major Difference Between the Shi’a and the Sunni

Islam Awareness (Sunni)

Sunnis vs. Shi'ites —An Outline Of The Differences Between The Sunnis and The Shi'ite in Matters of Faith And Doctrine

RT — Close all mosques & ban the Koran: Poll-topping Geert Wilders launches ‘de-Islamization’ manifesto

Geert Wilders, the wild-haired head of the right-wing Dutch Freedom Party (PVV), launched a new manifesto that calls for the “de-Islamization" of the Netherlands as he leads in the polls to become the next prime minister.

Titled, “The Netherlands is ours again,” Wilders published the one page, 11 point screed on Thursday, highlighting the party’s hard-line positions on Islam.…

RT
Close all mosques & ban the Koran: Poll-topping Geert Wilders launches ‘de-Islamization’ manifesto

Rakesh Krishna Simha — How the West used radical Islam and unleashed global terror

Western nations have backed fundamentalist forces at the expense of secular, nationalist Muslims. With western funding and support, the Islamic fringe has come to occupy the mainstream.…

How it all began.

“The British Empire had an overprotective attitude toward Islam,” writes Nu’man Abd Al-Wahid of the Lebanon-based Al-Akhbar.

Considering that Britain was one of the prime culprits in the destabilisation of Iran in the 1950s and is behind the devastation of Iraq, Libya and Syria in more recent times, one would be tempted to take the view the British are anti-Muslim. But in fact they are only opposed to nationalist Muslims and the moderate middle classes.

Al-Wahid explains: “When the Empire began to consolidate its lordship over the Arab world after World War I, it partnered with Saudi Wahhabis and the Muslim Brotherhood. The trends these movements represented were not so much ‘invented’ by the British but favoured and promoted.

"Before the British allowed the Wahhabis to establish themselves in Riyadh in 1901, they were an isolated, exiled cult in the Basra region known as ‘Kuwait’. With further support from the Empire, the Wahhabis expanded into the western part of the Arabian peninsula in 1924 and 1925.”

The British advocated the Muslim Brotherhood brand of Islam rather than the traditional moderate Islam as practised by the oldest university in the Islamic world, Al-Azhar.

“The British Empire...heroically and selflessly defended Islam, even if al-Azhar, the traditional bastion of Islamic learning in the world, didn’t comprehend this urgency. By the time these two major trends of Islamism strategically coalesced in the 1950s to meet the challenge of third world independence and socialism, the Americans had embraced the British Empire’s imperialist strategy.”

“This embrace meant bringing British puppets, such as the al-Saud clan of Saudi Arabia and the Thani clan of Qatar, under its protective umbrella. This American appropriation of the puppets had initially gained doctrinal credibility through the Eisenhower doctrine and extended all the way until the 1980s to support the Islamist mercenaries, or mujahideen, against the Soviets in the 1980s.”

Downhill from there.

During the Carter administration, under the influence of Zbigniew Brzezinski, the US began to employ Wahhabi, Salafi, Takfiri mujahideen as "freedom fighters" and used them subsequently in  proxy wars — until the mujahideen turned on them. But the mujahideen presented too good an opportunity to give up entirely so the US still incorporates them.

However, the desire to play cynical geopolitical games is too strong in the West. In most cases western politicians and generals are way over their heads in events they cannot begin to understand, let alone control. Meanwhile, the battle is spilling over into the streets of Europe and occasionally the United States. The West’s ‘Freudian Bargain’ is clearly coming unstuck.

Russia & India Report
How the West used radical Islam and unleashed global terror
Rakesh Krishnan Simha

Catherine Shakdam — Wahhabi Saudi Arabia and the Disappearing of Islam’s Heritage

Backgrounder.

While world nations remain mostly oblivious to the crippling danger presented by Saudi Arabia – a nation which wealth has shielded it from criticism, and whose leaders have stood immune from legal pursuits, the Kingdom has a lot to answer to …

Actually it is not so much Saudi Arabia as a political construct which should worry you, but rather the faith it has leaned on to draw legitimacy from: Wahhabism.

Born in the desert of Nejd in the 18th century – an unwelcoming stretch of land which for centuries has echoed from the war cries of looters and tribal warlords, Wahhabism came into the world courtesy of one self-professed Islamic erudite: Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab. A follower of Ibn Taymiyyah*, Ibn Abdul-Wahhad imagined himself a religious authority so grand that only his teachings could be deemed worthy – a sanctity onto Islam, the one school of thought to surpass all others, and in shame bind them!

Or so he claimed …or so he made others believe!

An ascetic, violent and reactionary faith, Wahhabism is not just anchored in bloodshed, it has been weaved around hate, bred on exclusion, and grown on ignorant bigotry.
If ever there was an antithesis of Islam, Wahhabism would most certainly qualify to that title.

But enough already on this individual … although we have to admit that it is his poisonous thoughts which continue to darken our skies, by allowing powers to wage “holy wars”.

You might know Wahhabism under a different name – that of Islamic radicalism.

It is at this point in my article that I will ask you to review your definition of radicalism and learn to call this abomination by its real name: Wahhabism.

The Duran
Wahhabi Saudi Arabia and the Disappearing of Islam’s Heritage

Catherine Shakdam

Ibn Tamiyyah declared the teaching of Ibn Arabi, whom Sufis call "the greatest (spiritual) leader" (al-shaykh al-akbar), heretical. He was also highly critical of Shite Islam. Ibn Tamiyyah is regarded as the source of Salafism. Wahhabism is an extreme form of Salafism. Salafism is a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam and Wahhabism is perhaps the most extreme view of it. Equating Salafism with Islam would be like equating Christian Fundamentalism with Christianity. Equating Wahhabism with Islam would be like equating Christian Dominionism with Christianity.

Aaron w. Hughes — No, it isn’t all one Thing: The Variety of Religious Experience in Islam

You can't tell the players without a scorecard.

How Muhammad’s message developed into the religion of Islam — complete with legal and doctrinal content — took centuries to develop and cannot concern us here.

What is important to note, however, is that his message spread into various (unbordered) regions. Modern nation states would only arise much later. And each of these areas was already in possession of its own set of religious, legal and cultural traditions.

The result was that Islam had to be articulated in the light of local customs and understandings. This was done, in part, through the creation of legal courts, a class of jurists (ulema; mullas in Shi`ism), a legal code (sharia) and a system of interpretation of that code based on rulings (fatwas).

Many local customs arose based on trying to understand Muhammad’s message. And these customs and understandings gave rise to distinct legal schools.

Although there were originally many such schools, they gradually reduced to four in Sunni Islam – Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi`i and Hanbali. While these four schools all regard one another as orthodox, they nevertheless have distinct interpretations of Islamic law. Some of their interpretations are more conservative than others.

There are also a number of such schools in Shi`i Islam….

All this legal and local variation has produced different interpretations of the religion. But despite such regional and legal diversity, many Muslims and non-Muslims insist on referring to Islam and sharia as if they were stable entities.…

The Hanbali school, backed by the wealth of the Saudi ruling family, has also tried to make inroads into other areas. Those associated with this legal school, for example, have built madrasas (religious seminaries) in regions traditionally influenced by other legal schools of thought.

Most fundamentalist movements in Islam, including Islamic State, have emanated from such ultra-conservative elements. The Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, for instance, are influenced by the more conservative elements of Hanbali ideology, even though they exist in a predominantly Hanafi legal environment.

The goal of many of these groups, sometimes referred to as Wahhabis or Salafis, is to return to what they imagine to be the pure or pristine version of Islam as practised by Muhammad and his earliest followers. They often have strict interpretations of Islam, strict dress codes and separation of the sexes.…

Seems always to come back to the Saudis.

Informed Comment
No, it isn’t all one Thing: The Variety of Religious Experience in Islam
Aaron w. Hughes, The Conversation

William Wedin — Two Million Syrian Christian Population Being Exterminated by ISIL

That which must not be said or shown in Western media.

Good historical backgrounder, too. How the West created this.

Russia Insider

Two Million Syrian Christian Population Being Exterminated by ISIL

William Wedin, clinical psychologist

Elisa Pinna — Head of Syrian TV [Diana Jabbour] calls for resumption of diplomatic relations with Italy, presents "real Syrian women, secular and free"

Whatever else one wants to say, women are free in non-sectarian secular Islamic states like Saddam's Iraq and Assad's Syria, unlike sectarian Islamic states like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Western allies.

Inquiring liberal minds would like to know why the West lead the the US as the "bastion of freedom" is trying to end the freedom of these women? This is craziness.

Jabbour for ten years directed Syria's film and television system and does not hesitate to admit that the government in Damascus has unfortunately been losing the "media war:"

"There was a total boycott of Syrian media. Suffice it to say that the Syrian television channel has been removed from the European and Arab satellite platforms. " In the meantime," she adds, "the Western media have spread propaganda -- that is driven and also subsidized by some fundamentalist countries in the region -- about what was happening in Syria" and "voices from outside of the choir are rare."

"It is not credible," she observes, "that Assad is the enemy of the whole world, while the West relies on extremist regimes, Wahhabis, where people get decapitated, just like in the Caliphate."

"It is a paradox" - she said - "that these regimes are invited to debate democracy in Syria."

"I ask Western journalists to come to our country, to look with their own eyes, and then to write what they want. It's not fair that they base their information on sites that are not even in Syria and that spread false propaganda," she says. .

Inside Syria, the national television reaches the areas controlled by jihadis, but people are forbidden see it, on pain of death. "Ten days ago in Raqqa, a woman was stoned to death because they accused her of connecting to the Internet," says Diana Jabbour. 

"The militiamen of Isis," she comments, "are not not actually fighting against a certain type of regime, but against a culture and that is why, in addition to destroying archaeological sites and our memory, they often attack television crews." "This is what we try to counter-act in continuing in our production." The war has cut their activity in half, and "from the 60 TV shows of 2010, we have moved now to thirty." "But the important thing is to continue to film, to make culture."

One of the most popular series is called "Haraer", an Islamic term widely used by ISIS to define the role of women in society. "Here, in this series, we represent the real Syrian women, those who fought for national independence against the Turks and the French, the women who founded schools and newspapers. Women secular and free."…

What she wants for the future.

"And first the jihadists' supply of money and weapons from the outside has to stop. As for Assad, I do not know what he has in mind to do, whether to run again or not. But as a Syrian, I don't not want anyone else to decide this for me. There must be an international effort to get to free elections, where the Syrians themselves could elect their representatives. "

Fort Russ

Head of Syrian TV [Diana Jabbour] calls for resumption of diplomatic relations with Italy, presents "real Syrian women, secular and free"

Elisa Pinna
In ANSA-med November 23, 2016
Translated from Italian by Tom Winter, November 26, 2015

Jonathan Larson — Russia defends Christianity

Most Westerners don't realize that the many Christians of the East are Aramaic-speaking, the same language spoken by Jesus millennia ago. 

Modern Christians tend to think of "the Holy Land" as Israel, but Antioch was the center of the Church after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Diaspora. 

"..,it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called 'Christians'.” Acts 11:26 (NRSV)

The five widely recognized apostolic sees are Jerusalem, Rome, Antioch, Constantinople, and Alexandria.

There are still communities of Christians in the Middle East, both Latin and Orthodox.

real economics
Russia defends Christianity

Jonathan Larson

Catherine Shakdam — Wahhabism: Religious deviance and fountainhead of radicalism & extremism

Muslims are caught in the eye of a ferocious storm as Islamic State’s legions spread fear across three continents. But anger has been misplaced as the real face of terror lies not with Islam but hidden in Saudi Arabia, where Wahhabism reigns all powerful....

This terror we have labeled as Islamic radicalism could not be further remote from Islam....

This Islam the world has come to loathe is in fact a perversion, which was born in the desert of Nejd in Saudi Arabia back in the 18th century. This ideology Muslims and non-Muslims alike have to come to fear and despise is but an engineered religious deviance rooted in hatred.

Wahhabism is merely the misguided expression of one man’s political ambition - Mohammed Abdel-Wahhab, a bigot who was recruited by the British Empire to erode the fabric of Islam and crack the armor of the then-Ottoman Empire by breeding sectarianism and dissent. It is Abdel-Wahhab's alliance to the House of Saud that ultimately unleashed this now seemingly unstoppable evil we know today under the tag of Islamic radicalism.
If not for the Al Saud Royals' billions and the silence of Western powers, Wahhabism would never have crossed the deserts of Saudi Arabia. If not for the kingdom's lavish sponsoring of the Wahhabi school of thought, extremism would never have come to be in the first place....

RT
Wahhabism: Religious deviance and fountainhead of radicalism & extremism
Catherine Shakdam, a political analyst, writer and commentator for the Middle East with a special focus on radical movements and Yemen

Press TV — Practicing Jihad al-Nafs during Ramadan

The month of Ramadan is the most sacred month for Muslims. It is the month in which the Quran was revealed to the emissary of Allah.

During this month and from dusk to dawn, Muslims are commanded to refrain from food, water and sexual activity. Through abstinence from one’s needs and desires, man is taught self-control and purification.

In the Arabic language Jihad al-Nafs means struggles against the inner self and one’s desires. Ramadan, therefore, is the ideal time to strengthen one’s spirit.

Jihad al-Nafs is considered as the major struggle as it is much more difficult than fighting in the battlefield, for in the struggle against the self, one has to constantly battle enemies inside himself. In this episode we look at the significance of Jihad al-Nafs in Ramadan?

Jihad means "battle" or "struggle" in Arabic. Nafs means "self" in the sense of limited individuality. Life is a "battlefield" on which a person struggles with oneself to overcome individuality manifesting as self-interest and self-importance instead of love and humility. It is a battle against shaitan, the tempter. Psychologically, it means doing battle against one's own "demons."

Islam is derived from the Semitic root SLM. It means "peace" as in Arabic salaam and Hebrew shalom" (salem). The term islam also signifies submission to the Most High and obedience of divine commandments, that is, divine law — shari'a in Arabic and halakha (הֲלָכָה) in Hebrew. The consequence of submission is peace, both for individuals and society.

Press TV (Iran)
Practicing Jihad al-Nafs during Ramadan

Gareth Porter — When the Ayatollah Said No to Nukes

Iran's WMD-is-against-Islam policy began with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and has been reiterated under Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Truthout
When the Ayatollah Said No to Nukes
Gareth Porter, Foreign Policy | Report

BTW, WMD were found in Iraq but they were the chemical and biological weapons that the West had provided to Saddam during his war with Iran when it looked as if Iran would win the war against the greatly outnumbered Iraqis. But that news was suppressed for political reasons. Saddam did use them against the Iranians and also against the Iraqi Kurds.