Wahhabism is an Islamic religious doctrine that emerged in the middle of the eighteenth century in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. The foundations and teaching of this movement will be set by the Islamic teacher Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. His mission was to restore “the true values of Islam” from the time of the Prophet Muhammad.
Concerned about the practices of the Muslim world which he considered polytheistic such as prayers for saints, making a pilgrimage to tombs and special mosques, mystical rituals and giving of sacrificial offerings, as well as the general disregard of the Islamic law, the reformer started a study that basically would have to return Muslims to the “right way”. The customs that had an act associated with a person or object with a force that only needs to be prescribed to the Lord were called shirk (polytheism). Religious festivals, including the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday, Shiite rituals and Sufi mysticism were a special problem as such.
These customs were characterized by the term “jahiliyyah”, a term associated with the ignorance of the Arabs before the Prophet Muhammad. The central teaching and idea that shaped his doctrine was the emphasis on Tawhid (Unity of God).
The roots of the ideology
Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s teaching has many similarities with Salafism, which is also a literary Sunni theological orientation. The name of Salafism comes from the term ” al-salaf al salih” (righteous predecessors), a phrase that alludes to the first three generations of Muslims that represent the “golden age” of Islam.
The roots from which these two doctrines form their ideology are in the views of the teacher Ahmad ibn Hanbal and his company “The People of the Hadith”. The Master and his circle advocated only the literal interpretation of the Quran “because of his divine nature”. The addition of this literary view was given by Taqī ad-Dīn Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah who saw the Salafists as their chief pre-modern teacher authority. He criticized popular religious practices and the authority of Islamic law schools, emphasizing the Quran and Hadith as the only exclusive source in Islam, and announced the “triumph of Scripture versus reason”.
The two teachings are close and related and follow the same theology and pre-modern authority. Still, the main difference is that Wahhabism adheres to the Hanbali Law School and is a state religion in Saudi Arabia.
While Salafism is a widespread legal reform of the eighteenth century that rejects the authority of Islamic law schools and states, according to Jacob Olidort, the understanding of the two key concepts Sunna (the words and deeds of the Prophet) and bid’ a (innovations) are key to our understanding of their views on politics and modernity. “Salafist believe that the entire scope of human activity, rather than religious rituals and beliefs, can be categorized according to whether an act is sunna or bid’ a. This idea helps explain, for example, why many Salafists reject nationalism, political parties, and nation-states. Because the concepts did not exist during the Prophet Muhammad’s time, they cannot be considered sunna and thus, according to Salafists, proper Muslims have no business participating in them.”
Saudi Arabia and Wahhabism
The teaching of Abd al-Wahhab found resistance among the population and under the threat of local Bedouins and tribes, the teacher will find shelter in the Saudi family in the deserts of Arabia. The Master called for the purification of the Muslim world from bid ‘a if necessary by force. This gave the Saud family the legitimacy of the invading campaigns of the peninsula that ” were in the name of true Islam”. The “religious charisma of the teacher and the military-political skills of the Emir represented a powerful combination” on the peninsula and Jihad was declared against the local tribes.
Thus began to spread learning and after the unsuccessful attempts of the first and second Saudi state in 1932, after a series of conquest wars, today’s Saudi Arabia was formed. Wahhabism is the state’s official religion, and everything else is censored, religious authorities take care of education and interpret what norms are allowed and in harmony with sunna. By increasing the power of the state in international relations and enjoying the benefits of natural resources, the influence of Wahhabism, which is present in the neighboring Gulf state is also increasingly present in other parts of the world.
For the first time, the world will truly felt the threat and the potency of terrorism after the September 11 attacks. In the attack, as many as 15 out of 19 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia and behind the attack stood the terrorist organization Al Qaeda, which introduced a new way of Jihad against the “distant enemy” represented by the Western world.
Wahhabism and radical terrorism
Al Qaeda was led by a Saudi-born from a wealthy family Osama bin Laden, who launched Jihad in Afghanistan against the USSR, and later after the Gulf War, he directed his attention to the United States and the Western world. In the Muslim world, the concept of Jihad means “struggling or striving” and pointing to every inner or outer way and aspiration of the individual to be a good Muslim and believer.
The mistake is when you immediately think that the idea is a “holy war”. In classical texts, there is an offensive jihad (fard al-kifayah), which is a duty of the collective community of the Muslim community and defensive Jihad (fard al-ayn) to expel the occupiers which represent an individual duty.
Thus, today’s terrorists justify their violent actions as a defensive jihad, saying that the Muslim world is under constant attack from the onset of European colonialism and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. The concept of defensive Jihad is crucial because it gives them the legitimacy of individuals to declare Jihad, which is their duty against occupiers rather than state authorities.
With the beginning of the Arab Spring in the whole Muslim world, a security vacuum was created that was used by radical Islamic groups who did not play a significant role at the beginning of the revolutions.
The influence of Wahhabism and Salafism and support for military and radical groups can be found throughout South Asia, North Africa, and Syria. In Syria, Wahhabi-oriented terrorist organizations have changed the character of the civil war from pro-democracy into a sectarian war with devastating consequences across the region.
It is also evident that there is a conflict between Wahhabism and modern democratic-liberal institutions that provide the basis for the terrorist groups which fights against “modernity” and for “the preservation of true Islam”. Because of this, all secular nation-states must understand the fundamental position of this movement, which if it takes roots can seriously disturb the democratic institutions and tolerance in the society.
The full text of this article was first written in 2016 in Academic Essay: “Wahhabism in Southeast Europe”, University “St. Cyril and Methodius”, Law School Iustinianus Primus- Skopje
