NYT October 7, 2001

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
 

JIDDA, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 6 - The faith that drives Osama

bin Laden and his followers is a particularly austere and

conservative brand of Islam known as Wahhabism, which was

instrumental in creating the Saudi monarchy, and if

sufficiently alienated, could tear it down.

Throughout its history, the Wahhabis have fiercely opposed

anything they viewed as bida, an Arabic word, usually

muttered like a curse, for any change or modernization that

deviates from the fundamental teachings of the Koran.

The telephone, radio broadcasts and public education for

women were at one point condemned as innovations wrought by

the Devil. Riots ensued over the introduction of television

in 1965, and were only quelled after police fired on

demonstrators. Similar tensions exist today. A recent

ruling suggested that the music played as mobile phone

rings should be outlawed on religious grounds.

Whenever the forces of change prevailed, it was usually

with the argument that the novelty could help propagate the

Koran. When that argument fell flat, change stalled. So,

for example, there are no movie theaters in Saudi Arabia -

they would promote the unhealthy mingling of the sexes -

and women are banned from driving.

But above all, the Wahhabis believe their faith should

spread, not giving ground in any place they have conquered.

Thus Saudi Arabia was a main financial backer of the

mujahedeen fighting to expel the godless Communists from

Muslim Afghanistan, and Mr. bin Laden became the public's

poster boy for that cause.

The dream of creating an Islamic state along Wahhabi lines

has also inspired fighters of the faith to join the cause

of the Muslims who were threatened in Bosnia, and the sect

was at the center of some of the boldest attacks by Chechen

separatists in parts of southern Russia.

The ferocity with which the Wahhabis fight for their cause

is legend. One Arab historian described followers of the

sect, founded in the 18th century, as they engaged in

battle: "I have seen them hurl themselves on their enemies,

utterly fearless of death, not caring how many fall,

advancing rank after rank with only one desire - the defeat

and annihilation of the enemy. They normally give no

quarter, sparing neither boys nor old men."

Today Wahhabis extol the purist state ruled by the Taliban

as one that subscribes to their vision, and they would seek

to replicate it.

"To the religious people, the extremists, the Taliban state

is the ideal Islamic society," said a professor at King

Abdel Aziz University, speaking on the condition of

anonymity because of sensitivity about the subject since

the Sept. 11 attacks.

In trying to balance American demands that it join the

fight against terrorism and the grassroots popularity of

Mr. bin Laden and the Taliban, the Saudi government is

walking a tightrope. It broke relations with the Taliban,

but has ruled out any role in attacking Afghanistan.

For the Saudi ruling family, the Wahhabis form a vital base

of legitimacy, as well as an unpredictable threat. Since

King Abdel Aziz ibn Saud unified the county in 1932, the

royal dynasty has had to balance the demands of

modernization and the intolerance of the Wahhabis, whose

antecedents were vital to the battles that established the

kingdom.

Many in the kingdom view Muhammed bin Abd al-Wahhab (1703-

87), the founder of the sect, as the co- founder of Saudi

Arabia, and indeed the royal clan and the religious clan

have long intermarried.

"As the princes wanted to expand, they needed the backing

of the spiritual leaders," said a prominent Jidda lawyer,

pointing out that they still relied on those rulings today.

"The best form of alliance is marriage."

Al-Wahhab descendents continue to hold prominent positions

in the kingdom. (And being a descendant of the founder

naturally does not automatically mean being a religious

zealot. King Feisal, for example, who was a descendant on

his mothers side, introduced girls schooling and

television.)

While the Saudi rulers essentially owe their power to the

Wahhabis, the followers of Wahhabism have long been a

fickle source of support, fiercely loyal as long as the

royals followed Wahhabi ways, but ready to turn when they

did not.

"They believe that Islam is a total system, that it has an

answer for every question," said Yahya Sadowski, a

political science professor at the American University of

Beirut. "They believe there is a kind of blueprint that you

can write out. It is all in the Koran."

Their Islam is an ascetic one. Men should wear short robes

and even avoid the black cords used on headclothes. Mosques

should be without decoration. There should be no public

holidays other than religious ones, and even the prophet's

birthday should not be celebrated. Drinking alcohol is

forbidden.

Punishment should be meted out as described in the Koran.

The right hand should be amputated for theft. Adulterers

should be stoned to death. Murder and sexual deviation

merit beheading. To this day Saudi Arabia metes out these

punishments, especially beheading for capital crimes.

No one can put a number on those who support the most

extreme form of Wahhabism. Estimates range from 10 percent

of the population to more than two-thirds. At least 10 of

the hijackers who carried out the attacks in the United

States came from Saudi Arabia.

Adherents make no apologies for their beliefs.

"It may be

hard to accept it, but you have to take Islam as a whole,"

said a Saudi who follows the faith's orthodox precepts,

using the subject of veiling as an example. "When a guy

says let a women uncover her face, what they are really

aiming for is to be completely uncovered, to live like the

West. This is just the first stone they are removing from

the building. Where will it end if we allow every aspect of

our lives to be taken away?"

For Mr. bin Laden, who was born and raised in Saudi Arabia

and enjoys significant support in the kingdom, even Saudi

Arabia's extremely conservative society and government -

where the Koran is proclaimed the constitution and all law

must conform to Islamic law, or Sharia - are not pure

enough.

He abhors the alliance of the ruling family with the West,

their dependence underscored by the hundreds of thousands

of American and other foreign troops who flowed into the

kingdom to defend it during the Gulf War. And he is

committed to the overthrowing of the Saudi regime.

While the Saudi government has deemed overt donations to

Mr. bin Laden's cause to be illegal, he receives support,

both popularly and through donations.

But just as the Christian world often found the Puritans

intolerable in their strict adherence to the Scriptures, so

the rest of the Islamic world does not always welcome the

Wahhabis's joyless interpretation of faith.

Wahhabism started as a movement for social and moral

reform, demanding a kind of simplicity by stripping away

all interpretations of Koranic texts made after the time of

the Prophet Mohammed.

Differences have often been the sharpest with members of

the Shiite branch of Islam, the form prevalent in Iran,

southern Iraq and parts of Lebanon, and have fueled Iran's

tense relations with the Taliban.

More mainstream Sunnis can be equally critical. Abdel Moati

Bayoumi, a former dean of the faculty of theology at

Cairo's Al-Azhar University, explained it this way: "They

started with one aim, to liberate Islam from any

superstitions and heretic innovation, to the degree that it

became frozen in old ideas."

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/07/international/middleeast/07SAUD.html?ex=1003709044&ei=1&en=6af1e98f5b47cd2e
 
 
 
 

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