Wahhabism and Wahhabi
Islam: How Wahhabi Islam
Differs from Sunni, Shia
Islam
Critics of Islam & Islamic Extremism
Must Understand Wahhabi
Extremist Beliefs
By Austin Cline, About.com Guide
Too many critics of Islam, including
atheists, fail to appreciate just how
diverse and varied Islam can be.
There are things you can say that
apply to all or most Muslims, as is the
case with Christianity, but there are
many more things which only apply to
some or a few Muslims. This is
especially true when it comes to
Muslim extremism because Wahhabi
Islam, the primary religious
movement behind extremist Islam,
includes beliefs and doctrines not
found elsewhere.
It would be a mistake and unethical to
criticize all of Islam on the basis of
doctrines particular to Wahhabi
Muslims. Modern Islamic extremism
and terrorism simply cannot be
explained or understood without
looking at the history and influence of
Wahhabi Islam. This means that it's
important from an ethical and an
academic perspective to understand
what Wahhabi Islam teaches, what's
so dangerous about it, and why those
teachings differ from other branches
of Islam.
Origins of Wahhabi Islam
Name: Wahhabism, Wahhabi Islam
Founder: Muhammad ibn Abd al-
Wahhab
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (d.
1792) was the first modern Islamic
fundamentalist and extremists.
Wahhab made the central point of his
reform movement the principle that
absolutely every idea added to Islam
after the third century of the Mulsim
era (about 950 CE) was false and
should be eliminated. Muslims, in
order to be true Muslims, must
adhere solely and strictly to the
original beliefs set forth by
Muhammad.
The reason for this extremist stance,
and the focus of Wahhab's reform
efforts, was a number of popular
practices which he believed
represented a regression to pre-
Islamic polytheism. These included
praying to saints, making pilgrimages
to tombs and special mosques,
venerating trees, caves, and stones,
and using votive and sacrificial
offerings.
These are all practices commonly and
traditionally associated with religions,
but they were unacceptable to
Wahhab. Contemporary secular
behaviors are even more anathema to
Wahhab's successors. It is against
modernity, secularism, and the
Enlightenment which current
Wahhabists do battle and it is this
anti-secularism, anti-modernism
which helps drive their extremism,
even to the point of violence.
Wahhabi Doctrines
In contrast to popular superstitions,
Wahhab emphasized the unity of God
( tawhid ). This focus on absolute
monotheism lead to him and his
followers being referred to as
muwahiddun , or unitarians.
Everything else he denounced as
heretical innovation, or bida . Wahhab
was further dismayed at the
widespread laxity in adhering to
traditional Islamic laws: questionable
practices like the ones above were
allowed to continue, whereas the
religious devotions which Islam did
require were being ignored
This created indifference to the plight
of widows and orphans, adultery, lack
of attention to obligatory prayers, and
failure to allocate shares of inheritance
fairly to women. Wahhab
characterized all this as being typical
of jahiliyya , an important term in
Islam which refers to the barbarism
and state of ignorance which existed
prior to the coming of Islam. Wahhab
thus identified himself with the
Prophet Muhammad and at the same
time connected his society with what
Muhammad worked to overthrow.
Because so many Muslims lived (so he
claimed) in jahiliyya, al-Wahhab
accused them of not being true
Muslims after all. Only those who
followed the strict teachings of al-
Wahhab were truly Muslims because
only they still followed the path laid
out by Allah. Accusing someone of
not being a true Muslim is significant
because it is forbidden for one
Muslim to kill another; but if someone
is not a true Muslim then killing them
(in war or in an act of terrorism)
becomes licit. It would be hard to
underestimate the importance of this
principle to modern terrorists and
extremists.
Obviously, Wahhabi religious leaders
reject any reinterpretation of the
Quran when it comes to issues settled
by the earliest Muslims. Wahhabists
thus oppose the 19th and 20th
century Muslim reform movements
which reinterpreted aspects of Islamic
law in order to bring it closer to
standards set by the West, particularly
with regards to topics like gender
relations, family law, personal
autonomy, and participatory
democracy.
Wahhabi Islam & Extremist Islam
Today
Today, Wahhabism is the dominant
Islamic tradition on the Arabian
peninsula, though its influence is
minor in the rest of the Middle East.
Because Osama bin Laden comes
from Saudi Arabia and is Wahhabi
himself, Wahhabi extremism and
radical ideas of purity have obviously
influenced him considerably.
Adherents of Wahhabi Islam do not
regard it as simply one school of
thought out of many; rather it is the
only path of true Islam nothing
else counts.
Even though Wahhabism is a minority
position overall in the Muslim world, it
has nevertheless been influential for
other extremist movements
throughout the Middle East. This can
be seen with a couple of factors, first
of which is al-Wahhabs use of the
term jahiliyya to vilify a society which
he does not consider pure enough,
whether they call themselves Muslim
or not. Even today, Islamists use the
term when referring to the West and
at times even to their own societies.
With it, they can justify overthrowing
what many might regard as an Islamic
state by essentially denying that it is
truly Islamic at all.