BEYOND SYRIA IRAQ

COLE BUNZEL
ISLAMIC STATE IDEOLOGY AND SAUDI ARABIA
While the Islamic State’s ideology is informed by a variety of influences,
the most prominent and significant is that of Wahhabism, the historically
severe form of Sunni Islam indigenous to Saudi Arabia. Founded by
a preacher named Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab, it emerged in central
Arabia during the mid-eighteenth century. Ibn Abdul Wahhab and the Al-
Saud family formed a state that eventually went on to conquer most of the
Arabian Peninsula.
Wahhabism, as its enemies have long called it, is a purist movement
that emphasized the “proper” worship of God. While Wahhabis generally
do not use the term Wahhabi to describe themselves, preferring “Salafi” or
“Muslim,” they do recognize that their movement is distinct. They describe
it with such terms as “the mission of the Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abdul
Wahhab” and “the Nejdi mission.”
Historically, the Wahhabi movement, however one calls it, was exclusionary
and aggressive: all Muslims professing a different version of Islam
were considered unbelievers who deserved to be shunned, hated, and
fought. Wahhabism was seen by the majority of the Islamic world of the
eighteenth century as a terrible heresy, in much the same way as the Islamic
State is seen by the Islamic world today.
The official religious establishment in Saudi Arabia espouses a much
softer form of Wahhabism than before and refuses to acknowledge the
Islamic State’s appeals to the more radical Wahhabi heritage. The kingdom’s
scholars strongly repudiate the group, declaring its members to be
“Kharijites,” a reference to an early radical Muslim sect that excommunicated
and fought fellow Muslims. Yet since the Kharijites were, according
to many Wahhabi scholars, still Muslims, the accusation of Kharijism
does not rise to the level of excommunication. Only a few Saudi religious
scholars have declared the group to be apostates. The Saudi scholars have
further distanced the kingdom’s own interpretation of Islam from that of
the Islamic State by arguing a foreign agenda motivates the actions of the
latter group. The scholars emphasize the purported influence of Muslim
Brotherhood ideology, for example, or allude to some supposed Israeli support.
In general, the scholars, along with the government, have sought to
downplay the link between the kingdom’s Wahhabi history and the Islamic
State’s current ideology.
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