Wahhabi Islam Today
The fortunes of the Wahhabi brand of Islam became a matter of political fortune when it was adopted by the Al Saud family, leaders in the fight against domination and rule of Ottoman Turks on the Arabian peninsula. This rebellion against the Ottomans was fierce and bloody, in large part because the Wahhabis were indiscriminate in their killing of both Muslims and non-Muslims — anyone who didn’t adhere to their vision of orthodoxy was a fair target. Leading jurists of the time tended to brand them as the contemporary equivalents of the Kharijites
When the Saud family’s rebellion was defeated, many assumed that Wahhabi Islam would fade away or simply become another obscure sect. However, it gained renewed importance under the leadership of Abd al-Aziz in Saud, a new Arabian leader who allied himself Wahhabi militants known as the Ikhwan. This time the rebellion against the Ottoman Turks was supported by Western powers who were involved in World War I, where Turkey was allied with Germany.
Today, Wahhabism is the dominant Islamic tradition on the Arabian penninsula, though its influence is greatly reduced in the rest of the Middle East. As 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 really counts.
Also, even though Wahhabism is a minority position, 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-Wahhab’s 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.
A second influence is demonstrated by the strict Wahhabi opposition to any reinterpretation of traditional Islamic law. Although Wahhabism allows for new interpretations when it comes to issues never decided upon by early jurists (say, for example, the relative morality of socialism or capitalism), many of the fundamental influences of the West don’t touch upon them. Modern Islamists follow the Wahhabi example by opposing any attempt to reconcile traditional Islam with modern, Western notions regarding issues like gender, family, and religious rights.
It is worth observing that al-Wahhab was strongly influenced by the works of Ibn Taimiyya, a medieval orthodox theologian who will reappear several times in this study. Taimiyya argued against the excesses of mystical Sufism and favored a return to more “orthodox” beliefs four hundred years before al-Wahhab.
