The Ottoman’s quickly learned how foolish they were to underestimate the power of the calling…

The Historical Roots

The grass roots movement of Imam Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab started in the eighteenth century C.E. as a movement calling to the return to the monolithic teachings of Islam in abiding to the Quran and Sunnah.

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab calling adapted the Hanbali teachings of jurisprudence, and he denounced many fascist extremist teachings, practices and heresies among Muslims, he sought to return the belief of Muslims to its roots and remove the Clergymen control of faith and organized religious practices forced onto the people through more than 200 years of Ottoman occupation that resulted in closing schools of thought and adapt to teachings based on myths and innovated devotional practices that spread in the Arabian Peninsula.

Seeing the level of intellectual decay of the nation and the effects of the Ottoman imposed track of clergy loyal to the Ottomans that resulted in the decline of the education and culture in the Arabian Peninsula bringing it to a complete cessation collapse. Imam Mohammed called for monotheism rejecting the clergymen control of faith and collection of tribute, and devoted himself to purifying the religion and ridding it off what was imposed on the people, as he moved between the towns of Yamama until he settled in the Al-Dir’iyya.

The Imams meet and a nation is born

After the expulsion of the Imam Muhammad by Emir of the Oyiena, Ibn Muammar, for fear of the Ottoman regent the governor of Al-Ahsa, who vowed to cut trade with the Oyiena if Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab was not exiled.

Imam Muhammad bin Saud (Emir of Diriyah) was a religious man who answered to the call of Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Wahhab and wanted to restore the Arabian Peninsula to its past glory and to bring back the Islamic roots back in the region.

He was the founder of the first Saudi state and the 16th Emir of Dra’iyya. Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab arrived to Diriyah, and called on its people to reject all that was foreign to the religion of God and return to the monolithic teachings of Islam in Quran and Sunnah.

Al-Dir’iyya became a center for spreading the reformist call of Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhab, schools were slowly popping up in villages, towns and cities across the Arabian Peninsula. The Ottoman regents, clergymen and Rouge Shiekhs started targeting the preachers and teachers.

The news of the calling spread and very few science students who later became supporters of the call and the state from Levant came to it, and the Sheikh Ibn Abdul-Wahab began sending his messages to the neighboring country regents and tribal leaders, calling for a revival of religion.

The lands were lawless and dangerous, so the Sheikh began to help Prince Muhammad bin Saud, to organize troops with very primitive weapons to enforce the basic laws in Diriyah ​​to the neighboring towns, villages and cities, and allow preachers to spread the call and establish its pillars in the region and outside it.

The Sheikh was supervising himself to prepare men, equipping armies, and sending companies, and continuing with writing lesson, teaching people writing and reading, welcoming guests, and delegations.

Battles against warlords and raiders continued and with every village, town freed from the state of lawlessness more supporters of Da`wah joined and more people were slowly started learning the basics of reading and writing.

The year is 1178 AH / 1773 C.E., Riyadh was liberated under the leadership of Prince Abdulaziz bin Muhammad bin Saud, and its former ruler, Daham bin Dawas, fled from it.

At the time of Saud bin Abdul Aziz, the state reached the apogee from a political point of view, as it reached Karbala in Iraq, and to Houran in the Levant, and the entire island was subjected to it except Yemen.

The Saudis abolished the tribute law that forced the weak to pay huge sums and the fees paid to war lords upon traveling, and Zakat was restored to the house of the Money House or Baitul-Maal. Might was no longer the rule in disputes between people as Judges were appointed.

War of the Ottoman’s and the Saudi State

The Ottoman Empire’s perception of the Saudi state varied according to the place it stretches to. The Ottoman’s viewed the Saudi state and its calling as a minor threat, a local uprising unworthy of the Empire’s direct attention.

The Ottoman’s quickly learned how foolish they were to underestimate the power of the calling. Although the Ottoman Empire felt that the calling and the Saudi state were a religious, cultural and political challenge to the Ottomans.

Khaled Homoud Alshareef holds PhD in Business and he earned Masters in Philosophy. He often writes about Islamism, Islamist factions and modern Terrorism. He tweets under @0khalodi0.

Saudi Arabia—homeland of Islam throughout its history has been participating positive policies to make peace

The Salafism Mystery

In any case, Salafism is neither an exact doctrine nor an ideology but rather means following the method of the first ancestors of Muslims, and it is an approach that has objective standards that govern both Muslims and non-Muslims.

Saudi religious scholars have issued Fatwa in 1980s to absolutely forbid suicide attacks against whoever, but imagine that the Saudis who follow Salafs are continually accused of supporting terrorism intellectually and religiously.

There are parties that claim to be Salafists, and there are parties that claim Islam. Well, not every claim is valid until it is verified. Unfortunately, most people, especially Western researchers and studies centers are making no effort to verify the claims.

Terrorist groups such as Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Taliban, Jihadists, Iranian regime and its proxies such as Hezbollah, Houthis and Shiite militias. All are anti-Islam and use name of Islam and take texts out of contexts for sake of ideological interests, control, and money.

Moderate Islam promised by Saudi Crown Prince

When Saudi Crown Prince talked about restoring Islam, he meant to restore Islam from this broad spectrum of groups that hijack Islam and use its name in most horrific ways in accord with the forces of evil and darkness such as the liberal left.

Well, how did extremist and terrorist figures like Hassan Rouhani, Jawad Zarif, Muhammad al-Houthi, ISIS and bin Laden manage to gain wide promotion in media such in Washington Post, News Week, and Qatar-based Al-Jazeera?

You should ask question of why that wide spectrum of groups: Leftists, Iran, Turkey, Qatar, Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, Hamas, Al Qaeda, Jihadists, have common factor which is the enmity against Saudi Arabia, especially against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.

Media campaigns against Saudi Arabia

Khashogji’s incident was in the same context, a conspiracy that many parties participated in different roles. The crime scene was equipped with spy devices, Turkish intelligence in form of journalists and an alleged fiancée, suddenly appeared in Khashoggi’s life.

Saudi history is devoid of these incidents, with exception of Khashoggi conspiracy. Many Saudi dissidents roam the world and nobody cares for them. Several countries tried to seriously shake Saudi stability and miserably failed, Khashogji was never a threat.

Well, why did this unprecedented media campaign and threats against the Saudis happened while Iranian regime, Turkish regime, Syrian regime and Qatari regime have participated to cause millions of victims, killed, injured and displaced?

There are massive and concerted efforts to eliminate Islam as a religion, and to assassinate the Saudi model that represents the center of the Islamic world.

It started a long time ago. I’ve discussed that from the beginning in this article.

To answer why? We must recognize obsession of some western parties with imposing liberal ideology (secularism) on the world by using military, political, and economical intervention under the slogans of human rights and freedom to eliminate the influence of religion from human life.

Applying some liberal manifestations has been sufficient for the West to allow some parties to practice terrorism, especially against Muslims where Muslims are majority of those victims of terrorism.

Iranian regime has been a terrorist since the beginning 1979, but the West, especially Europe, preferred its perpetuation to use it to achieve political, economic, and ideological interests. Which can be termed as “Intellectual Prostitution”.

Objectively, Saudi Arabia can not be placed with Iran and Turkey on an equal footing with regard to peace, stability, development and fight against terrorism, but the West does not have any objective standards at all regarding foreign policy.

Saudi Arabia’s fight against Terrorism

The Saudi monarchy and Saudi people were the first to be affected by terrorism. An assassination attempt against late Saudi king, a Saudi minister was kidnapped, an assassination attempt against another one and thousands of victims were citizens and residents in Saudi Arabia.

Why have Iran, Turkey and Qatar not been exposed, for 40 years, to a real terrorist threat? Only Saudi Arabia and its ally Egypt, the two moderate powers in the region, have been contentiously the most exposed to real terrorist threats.

Why has Iran that practices terrorism for 40 years been accepted and supported, even now, Europe does efforts in that way.

Why has Turkey, that has evidenced relationship with ISIS, not been subjected to such a campaign that Saudi Arabia has faced?

The current US administration and US President Donald Trump are a great exception and we, in turn, highly appreciate this clarity in fighting Iranian terrorism.

Back to Start—Saudi Arabia and Salafism

Saudi Arabia—which embraces Islam, is the most stable in Middle East, the best in achieving rates of security, development and prosperity despite violent terrorist attacks, despite being surrounded by hotbeds of violence and despite international conspiracy.

Saudi Arabia—homeland of Islam throughout its history has been participating positive policies to make peace, to consolidate security and to support development regionally and globally.

Saudi Arabia represents reference of objective moral in international relations, with former US President Jimmy Carter’s testimony that the Saudis are the only ones who say in private talk what they say in public.

Saudi objectivity helps other peoples to expose the corruption of ideologies, politicians, and media that control their societies.

The Saudi monarchy model also reveals to the world that success, peace and development are possible without democracy or liberal ideology.

Turki al-Owerde is an independent Political Analyst and Commentator from Saudi Arabia. He tweets under @Turki_AlOwerde.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not reflect Milli Chronicle’s point-of-view.

Osama bin Laden, the former Al-Qaeda leader, was at odds with the so-called Wahhabi scholars and the Saudi government.

I can’t help but to comment on the recent media rant that ISIS gets their ideology from Wahhabism—nothing could be further from the truth. Please bare with this longer than usual article—it is important for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Reality Check Number One

Muhammad Ibn Abdul-Wahhab did not bring anything new, he only revived pure Islamic monotheism and cleaned up the polytheistic mystic Sufi practices and beliefs that were prevalent in the Ottoman Empire in general, and in the Arabian peninsula in particular, where grave and saint worship became the norm. He promoted adhering to the Sunnah, that is, Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him’s way, free from innovations in religion. He was not against modernity and technological innovation.

Reality Check Number Two

Muhammad Ibn Abdul-Wahhab and his followers did not revolt against the Ottomans nor was his mission to establish some sort of new leadership under them. In fact, it was Sherif Hussein who headed the Arab Revolt with the help of the British.

Reality Check Number Three

The so-called Wahhabis never labelled themselves as such. The loose label, which is only used to distinguish an orthodox practicing Muslim who frees himself form all partisanships, revolutionary ideologies, and mystical innovative groups, is Salafism.

Salafism is a methodology of following the religion, not an exclusive group with a membership or pledge of allegiance to a secret leader in a quasi-cult as some Muslims groups of today practice. The label Wahhabi was used by the West to negatively label the religious revivalist movement.

Unfortunately, certain Muslims, particularly those who adhere to mysticism, followed suit in the labelling game because this movement was against the practices of grave and saint worship in which extreme Sufis are immersed. Worshipping or calling onto anyone other than God is a form of major polytheism.

Reality Check Number Four

The so-called Wahhabi scholars, such as Ibn Baz, Ibn Uthaymeen, Albani and others, were the first to issue fatwas and bring forth solid evidence from Islamic texts condemning terrorism, whose source is the revolutionary group ideologies derived from Sayyid Qutb and Abul A’la Al-Maududi.

These groups promote violence and defiance of rulers, while Salafism promotes adherence the main body of the Muslims and obeying the ruler and keeping order, even if the ruler is an oppressor, for the evil of an oppressive ruler is much less than the evil caused by revolutions.

The Noble Quran clearly states in chapter 6 verse 129 in no uncertain terms that if the rulers are wrongdoers then the citizens are also wrongdoers – God says: “And thus will We make some of the wrongdoers allies of others for what they used to earn.”

Reality Check Number Five

ISIS, a revolutionary and defiant ideology, is the younger sister of Al-Qaeda. Osama bin Laden, the former Al-Qaeda leader, was at odds with the so-called Wahhabi scholars and the Saudi government. Yet, you find that Osama bin Laden is labelled a Wahhabi, when he was in fact on the opposite end of the spectrum from so-called Wahhabism, or more accurately, Salafism.

The word Salafi, like the word Islam, has been hijacked and used by different groups. Names don’t matter in reality, instead, the practices and action are what matter.

Conclusions

I advise Muslims to be conscious of God before letting their tongues or pens mention such terms and make such unfounded accusations whether directly or indirectly by posting articles on their walls by so-called Islamic experts.

Salafism calls to orthodoxy. If we claim that ISIS is following Salafism/Wahhabism, then we are saying that they are following orthodox Islam, which is anything but the truth, and is exactly what Islamophobes and haters want to try to prove.

Professor Wasim Ismail is of Palestinian origin settled in Canada. He earned Masters in Islamic Studies from Islamic Online University.