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

Paul Robinson — The peaceful city

Countering incredible Western naiveté.

Western propaganda has convinced most people in the West that the "reblels" were liberals fighting against the "dictatorial" Assad and his "repressive" regime rather than Sunni Islamists trying to impose their strict version of Islamic custom and law, similar to the Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia.

BTW, life in Damascus is reported to be similar to that described in the post about Aleppo prior to Western and Saudi/Qatari arming and funding of the "opposition."

Irrussianality
The peaceful city
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

Nassim Nicholas Taleb — The Syrian War Condensed: A more Rigorous Way to Look at the Conflict

I guess Taleb's blog is a fake news site that promotes Russian propaganda.

Medium
The Syrian War Condensed: A more Rigorous Way to Look at the Conflict

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Robert Parry — The Need to Hold Saudi Arabia Accountable

Background that is important in light of Donald Trump's stance on Iran, as well as that of Lt. General Flynn, Trump's choice for National Security Advisor and appointment of General Mattis as Secretary of Defense.

One of Official Washington’s favorite “group thinks” is to insist that Iran is the “chief sponsor of terrorism,” but the reality is that Saudi Arabia is much guiltier and U.S. officials know it, says Robert Parry.…

Parry shows that it is impossible for anyone in the deep state or the military not to know that Saudi Arabia is the chief state sponsor of terrorism and not Iran. Iran is opposed by Israel and the Wahhabi-Salafi Sunni states, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Is Donald Trump either misinformed, or carrying water for Israel?  But if that is so, why would he be backing off replacing Assad in Syria, which IsraelI officials have stated as the number one goal?

Are the generals are also misinformed (which is highly unlikely), backing Israel also, or just uttering a shibboleth as a secret handshake to be admitted to the game.

Consortium News
The Need to Hold Saudi Arabia Accountable
Robert Parry

See also

Some of President-elect Trump’s national security appointees are part of Official Washington’s “we-hate-Iran” group think, raising concerns about another Mideast war, notes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar.

Trump and His Iran-Haters

Paul R. Pillar

Robert Parry — The Need to Hold Saudi Arabia Accountable

One of Official Washington’s favorite “group thinks” is to insist that Iran is the “chief sponsor of terrorism,” but the reality is that Saudi Arabia is much guiltier and U.S. officials know it, says Robert Parry.

Consortium News
The Need to Hold Saudi Arabia Accountable
Robert Parry

Sputnik — Saudi King Urges World Powers to Stop Bloodshed in Syria

Crocodile tears from the main support and financier of jihadism as their jihadis get kettled in Aleppo.

Sputnik
Saudi King Urges World Powers to Stop Bloodshed in Syria

also

Fort Russ
Lavrov gives last chance to Aleppo terrorists: "Leave politely or be destroyed"

RusVesna - translated by J. Arnoldski

Sputnik
Trump Pledges to End US Regime Change Policies Around the World

The Duran
BREAKING: Al-Qaeda commanders negotiating surrender in Aleppo, Jihadi stronghold collapsing

Alexander Mercouris

Voltaire Network
The House of Representatives votes for a no-fly zone in Syria

The EU's “peace plan” for Syria

Assad Abu Khalil — I don't think that you have an idea of the language of Gulf regime media in Arabic

This is from the opinion page of the Qatari regime newspaper, Al-Quds Al-Arabi. It says: "as you do, o rabid dogs who you call yourselves secularists".

"Our guys."

Angry Arab News Service
I don't think that you have an idea of the language of Gulf regime media in Arabic
Assad Abu Khalil | Professor of Political Science, California State University, Stanislaus

also

The disgusting Arabic Huffington Post and its sectarian Wahhabi hatred

Mike Whitney — Obama Stepped Back From Brink, Will Hillary?

The American people need to understand what’s going on in Syria. Unfortunately, the major media only publish Washington-friendly propaganda which makes it difficult to separate fact from fiction. The best way to cut through the lies and misinformation, is by using a simple analogy that will help readers to see that Syria is not in the throes of a confusing, sectarian civil war, but the victim of another regime change operation launched by Washington to topple the government of Bashar al Assad.

With that in mind, try to imagine if striking garment workers in New York City decided to arm themselves and take over parts of lower Manhattan. And, let’s say, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decided that he could increase his geopolitical influence by recruiting Islamic extremists and sending them to New York to join the striking workers. Let’s say, Trudeau’s plan succeeds and the rebel militias are able to seize a broad swathe of US territory including most of the east coast stretching all the way to the mid-west. Then– over the course of the next five years– these same jihadist forces proceed to destroy most of the civilian infrastructure across the country, force millions of people from their homes and businesses, and demand that President Obama step down from office so they can replace him with an Islamic regime that would enforce strict Sharia law.

How would you advise Obama in a situation like this? Would you tell him to negotiate with the people who invaded and destroyed his country or would you tell him to do whatever he thought was necessary to defeat the enemy and restore security?….

Counterpunch
Obama Stepped Back From Brink, Will Hillary?
Mike Whitney

Larry C. Johnson — Hillary Knew the Saudis Were Funding ISIS

I have written for quite some time that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are funding ISIS. Glad to see that John Podesta informed Hillary of this fact back in 2014. Here’s a portion of that email:

While this military/para-military operation is moving forward, we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region. This effort will be enhanced by the stepped up commitment in the KRG. The Qataris and Saudis will be put in a position of balancing policy between their ongoing competition to dominate the Sunni world and the consequences of serious U.S. pressure. By the same token, the threat of similar, realistic U.S. operations will serve to assist moderate forces in Libya, Lebanon, and even Jordan, where insurgents are increasingly fascinated by the ISIL success in Iraq.

If you read the entire email you will discern that there is a recommendation to “put pressure” on Saudi Arabia and Qatar using diplomatic and intelligence channels. But nothing concrete is proposed. The solution to Saudi Arabia and Qatar is very simple–work with Russia and China and pass a UN Security Council resolution that imposes sanctions on any country that provides any kind of support to ISIS. Very simple.

Why does Hillary not want to do that? Also very simple. The Saudis and the Qataris have pumped millions of dollars into the Clinton Foundation. This is the ultimate pay for play.…

No Quarter
Hillary Knew the Saudis Were Funding ISIS

Larry C. Johnson, counterterrorism expert formerly with the CIA and US State Department

Noah Feldman — The Geopolitics of Deciding Who Is Sunni

"Bloomberg view writer defends KSA state-sponsorship of jihadi terrorism and US support of it." (snark)

Ok, a bit snarky, but that is the subtext and implication. 

The author apparently doesn't realize that moderate Sunni rejection of Wahhabism in the face of US support of its chief advocate, KSA, implies US support of KSA state-sponsored jihadi terrorism. And suggests that Vladimir Putin is attacking the US by rejecting Sunni extremism, which threats Russia directly since the Russia Federation has population of about 15 million and Islam has been established there since the 7th century.

Oh, and the IsraelI hardline government also supports KSA and is on board with using jihadis as proxies, based on the strategic maxim, "the enemy (KSA) of our enemy (Iran) is our friend." (Disclaimer: I am neither anti-Semitic, nor anti-Israel, I am anti-Zionist and anti-apartheid.)

The idea that this is "geopolitics" is contradicted by the author's reporting.

Ahmed el-Tayeb, the state-appointed grand imam of the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, was the event’s headliner. Although it has declined in recent decades, Al-Azhar was for centuries considered the most influential Sunni scholarly institution. Its head, known as the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, is by job description alone a major figure in the Sunni world.

The world should be celebrating this amidst the calls for moderate Islam to denounce Wahhabi and Salafi takfirism and jihadism. Instead Bloomberg View bemoans that a US ally is being called out for it. Shame on them.

Bloomberg View

The Geopolitics of Deciding Who Is Sunni
Noah Feldman

Moon of Alabama — Deir Ezzor Attack Enables The "Salafist Principality" As Foreseen In The 2012 DIA Analysis

Moon of Alabama outs US policy as aiming at creating a Salafist (Sunni fundamentalist) principality in Syria. The US plan is to use jihad to effect regime change in Syria. Why is the US so focused on regime change in Syria. There are basically three factors involved: 1) reduce or eliminate Iranian and Russian influence in oil and gas country, 2) Israel, and 3) secure energy resources and pipeline routes. "Assad" is a code word for the obstacles that stand in the way of this. The US willing to ally with Al Qaeda and use ISIS as a proxy to accomplish this.

At first glance this U.S. policy seems to be shortsighted, There is no way the envisioned "Sunni entity" would ever become stable. Instead it would continue to be a source of terrorism which would hit far beyond the borders of Syria and the surrounding states. But it is exactly the instability of this construct that will allow for further U.S. presence in the area. A source of insecurity that can be activated, or shut down, whenever convenient.

Moon of Alabama
Deir Ezzor Attack Enables The "Salafist Principality" As Foreseen In The 2012 DIA Analysis

Mike Whitney — Assad’s Death Warrant

"Secret cables and reports by the U.S., Saudi and Israeli intelligence agencies indicate that the moment Assad rejected the Qatari pipeline, military and intelligence planners quickly arrived at the consensus that fomenting a Sunni uprising in Syria to overthrow the uncooperative Bashar Assad was a feasible path to achieving the shared objective of completing the Qatar/Turkey gas link. In 2009, according to WikiLeaks, soon after Bashar Assad rejected the Qatar pipeline, the CIA began funding opposition groups in Syria.”

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Why the Arabs don’t want us in Syria, Politico

Counterpunch
Assad’s Death Warrant

Mike Whitney

See also

Fort Russ
The top ten western lies about the war in Syria [Part one, Lies 1 through 5]

rt.français, September 9, 2016
Translated from French by Tom Winter September 15, 2016

The top ten western lies about the war in Syria [Part two, lies 6 through 10]

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

Radio Free Europe Radio LIberty — Chechen Republic Head Sides With Embattled Ingush Mufti

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty sides with fundamentalist Salafis against moderate Sufis in the Caucasus, mirroring the US position in MENA with its support for fundamentalist Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates and their proxies versus secular Islamic states.

Radio Free Europe Radio LIberty
Chechen Republic Head Sides With Embattled Ingush Mufti

More propaganda
The Daily Beast

Russia Is Sending Jihadis to Join ISIS

Michael Weiss

The reality.

NEO
What if Putin is Telling the Truth?
F. William Engdahl

Brahma Chellaney — Saudi Arabia’s Phony War on Terror

Containing the scourge of Islamist terror will be impossible without containing the ideology that drives it: Wahhabism, a messianic, jihad-extolling form of Sunni fundamentalism whose international expansion has been bankrolled by oil-rich sheikhdoms, especially Saudi Arabia. That is why the newly announced Saudi-led anti-terror coalition, the Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism, should be viewed with profound skepticism.…

While this is well known, it's interesting that it is appearing at Project Syndicate, which is an organ of the System. Formerly, it was a persona non grata like Noam Chomsky saying this and getting no exposure.

Project Syndicate
Saudi Arabia’s Phony War on Terror
Brahma Chellaney | Professor of Strategic Studies at the New Delhi-based Center for Policy Research and Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin

NATO's covert alliance with ISIS and other jihadis

This alliance with the West and the influx of enormous oil revenues since the 1970s have allowed Saudi Arabia to export its brand of Sunni Islam, named Wahhabism after its founder Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, encouraging the homogenization of Islamic practices around the world after the model of the Wahhabiya. Known for its rejection of pre-Islamic history, visitation of tombs, the mixing of men and women, its zeal to purify Islam from allegedly deviant practices (such as Sufism and Shiism) and its disdain for other religions, the Wahhabiya was a puritan movement that gave religious legitimacy to the conquests of the Al Saud.…

The key ideological difference between ISIS and the early Saudi-Wahhabi movement is that the Islamic State wants to establish a caliphate, and regards monarchy as an un-Islamic form of government. Frightened by this challenge, which the Gulf states helped to create, Saudi Arabia has reaffirmed its alliance with the conservative Wahhabi religious forces in the country.

But in ISIS, Saudi Arabia now has a foe that is so close to its own religious interpretation of Islam, that Saudi Arabia can not be seen to be fighting ISIS very strongly because it would undermine its authority at home. And so the West’s support for Middle East dictatorships continues to fuel the flames that have given rise to Al Qaeda and ISIS, despite a growing awareness that these alliances are a double-edged sword.

Nothing about actual support for ISIS and other jihadi groups coming from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other fundamentalist Sunni states and admission of this by key US officials, however.

Red Pill Times
When the US supports Saudi Arabia, it is also supporting ISIS

Toby Matthiesen | senior research fellow in the international relations of the Middle East at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford
Originally appeared at The New York Times

NEO
What Stinks in Saudi Ain’t the Camel Dung

F. William Engdahl

Not just KSA.

Czech President Milos Zeman has allegedly slammed the idea of Turkey joining the EU, stressing that Ankara appears to act as if it was an ally of Daesh (the Islamic state) militant group rather than that of western powers.

Czech President strongly opposes Turkey entering the EU, because its a Daesh ally

Alexrpt

The leader of the group "Jabhat al-Nusra", the Emir, Abu Muhammad al-Julani, in an interview aired by Arab TV channel Orient News, has revealed Turkey's plans to create so-called "security zone" in Northern Syria. The leader of the militants, whose face was hidden from cameras, directly accused Erdogan's regime of creating a buffer zone " which will not weaken, but will strengthen ISIS". This was reported by "Russian spring".

"Turkey will allow ISIS to further expand its influence in the areas around the border", - said the leader of the militants.

Ankara, according to Abu Muhammed, "tends to have preference to attack Kurdish forces, and chooses to not fight with ISIS in Northern Syria".

Jabhat al-Nusra is reputedely an Al Qaeda affiliate.

Fort Russ
Leader of the Nusrats: "Erdogan is strengthening ISIS"
Tvzvezda

Translated by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ

Sputnik — US, France Must Stop Turning Blind Eye to Saudi Radicalizing Programs

As ever, follow the money — and oil.

Saudi Arabia played a key role in preparing the ground for the terror attacks in Paris by financing enormous radicalization programs targeting Muslims in France and other European countries, experts told Sputnik.

However, the French government has not dared to confront Saudi Arabia because it needs Saudi oil and the revenue from huge weapons sales to Riyadh, the analysts explained in interviews on Wednesday.

"Much of the extremism in France is funded by French allies in the Gulf," Institute for Gulf Affairs Director Ali al-Ahmed told Sputnik. "Saudi-French trade and arms contracts have led successive governments in Paris to overlook this Saudi role."

Other Gulf monarchies also purchase French weapons in lucrative deals for Paris, giving French authorities the incentive to tacitly tolerate continued funding for outlets that encourage Islamists, he added.…

Al-Ahmed also pointed out that at the G-20 summit in Turkey following the Paris attacks, the Saudi king skipped the moment of tribute to the Paris attack victims.

"He intentionally skipped it," al-Ahmed asserted.…

[US author and terrorism financing expert Dan] Lazare recalled that in December 2009, Clinton, then serving as US secretary of state, noted in a confidential diplomatic memo that "donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide."

In October 2014, US Vice President Joe Biden told Harvard University students that "'the Saudis [and] the Emirates… poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of military weapons into anyone who would fight against [SyrianPresident Bashar] Assad," Lazare remarked.

The funding led to massive direct US aid flowing to the Islamist groups such as the Nusra Front and al-Qaeda, Lazare pointed out.…

Sputnik
US, France Must Stop Turning Blind Eye to Saudi Radicalizing Programs

As'ad AbuKhalil — Some observations about the carnage in Paris

View from the perspective of an Arab leftist.

The Angry Arab New Service
Some observations about the carnage in Paris
As'ad AbuKhalil | Professor of Political Science, California State University, Stanislaus

ht lastgreek in the comments

RT — ‘ISIS is just an idea; you can’t go to war against an idea’

That's the problem. It's a powerful idea.

RT
‘ISIS is just an idea; you can’t go to war against an idea’

‘Turkey might become hostage to ISIL just like Pakistan did’ — Yonca Poyraz Doğan interviews Alistair Crooke

This is not a short post but it is a must-read in my view. It's about much more than Turkey and ISIL.

Would you tell us about your ideas in regards to the “financialization of the global order"? 

For some time, the international order was structured around the United Nations and the corpus of international law, but more and more the West has tended to bypass the UN as an institution designed to maintain the international order, and instead relies on economic sanctions to pressure some countries. We have a dollar-based financial system, and through instrumentalizing America's position as controller of all dollar transactions, the US has been able to bypass the old tools of diplomacy and the UN -- in order to further its aims. 

But increasingly, this monopoly over the reserve currency has become the unilateral tool of the United States -- displacing multilateral action at the UN. The US claims jurisdiction over any dollar-denominated transaction that takes place anywhere in the world. And most business and trading transactions in the world are denominated in dollars. This essentially constitutes the financialization of the global order: The International Order depends more on control by the US Treasury and Federal Reserve than on the UN as before.…

When did this start?

It started principally with Iran and it has been developed subsequently. In a book, “Treasury's War,” the tool of exclusion from the dollar-denominated global financial system is described as a “neutron bomb.” [A neutron bomb destroys life but leaves inanimate resources in place.] When a country is to be isolated, a "scarlet letter" is issued by the US Treasury that asserts that such-and-such bank is somehow suspected of being linked to a terrorist movement -- or of being involved in money laundering. The author of "Treasury's War" [Juan Zarate], who was the chief architect of modern financial warfare and a former senior Treasury and White House official, says this scarlet letter constitutes a more potent bomb than any military weapon. 

This system of reliance on dollar hegemony no longer requires American dependency on the UN and hands control to the US Treasury overseen by Steve Cohen -- a reflection of the fact that the military tools have become less available to the US administration, for domestic political reasons. 

But with Ukraine, we have entered a new era: We have a substantial, geostrategic conflict taking place, but it's effectively a geo-financial war between the US and Russia. We have the collapse in the oil prices; we have the currency wars; we have the contrived "shorting" -- selling short -- of the ruble. We have a geo-financial war, and what we are seeing as a consequence of this geo-financial war is that first of all, it has brought about a close alliance between Russia and China. 

China understands that Russia constitutes the first domino; if Russia is to fall, China will be next. These two states are together moving to create a parallel financial system, disentangled from the Western financial system. It includes replicating SWIFT [Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication] and creating entities such as the Asian Development Bank. One of the principal tools in the hands of Washington to control the global system was always the International Monetary Fund [IMF].

Nations have to go to the IMF to ask for financial help, when in difficulties, but recently it was China -- and not the IMF -- which bailed out Venezuela, Argentina and Russia as their currencies crashed. China became concerned when the ruble crashed on Dec. 16-17, and intervened to halt a run on the currency. The IMF and the World Bank were no longer at the center of the global financial order. They had been displaced by China.
What would you say about the prospects of success of this new order? 

It is too early to say that it will be successful, but it is a very important shift that is taking place. It has already started to have an effect. Take Russia: European and American leaders thought that Russia would weaken because of sanctions and the fall of the ruble, but China intervened and stopped the collapse in the ruble. In short, China is operating as a backstop to a financial system that is in the process of shifting dramatically away from Western control.

You can see where this is going.

These issues have been coming up and are being discussed in Iran, Russia and China. What sort of state should be built; how might it defend itself from a color revolution; from geo-financial predations; from globalised financial crises: how to build a strong state, how to give its people security? 

Russia experienced the grasping of the oligarchs and the disintegration of their economy. In China, too, consumer liberalism has taken a hold, but the atomizing effect of neo-liberalism is tearing at the fabric of society and attenuating its values. The main thing is that we rethink things. How do we put back values into the political system? How do we reinsert moral values back into the economic fabric? 

There is a strong reaction taking place against neo-liberalism -- everywhere. Every state will respond it in a different way. Russia is reaching back to Orthodox Christianity in order to re-invent what it means to be Russian -- in a new way: by emphasizing human "capital" and conservative family values. China, too, is looking afresh at its ancient masters. How do you make a state that is not vulnerable to the abuse of democracy by the West? How do you make a society that is not vulnerable to the control of economic variables in order to bring regime change? How do you withdraw from this vulnerability?…

The portions of the post I have omitted consider how this affects the petrodollar, the Middle East, oil, and the shifting world order. Also the position of Turkey, which is a strategic pivot point between East and West.

Today's Zaman (Times) — Istanbul
‘Turkey might become hostage to ISIL just like Pakistan did’

Yonca Poyraz Doğan interviews Alistair Crooke, director and founder of Conflicts Forum based in Beirut