Michael
01-17-08, 10:51 PM
The Growing Power of Petro-Islam (http://www.newsweek.com/id/94447)
This is an interesting, if not obvious, take on KSA and their take on Islam called Wahhabism.
A couple good excepts:
The president seemed to know he wasn't exactly calling for democratic revolution in the Mideast. His underwhelming speech—touted before the trip as a high point—was a kind of have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too address. So as not to upset the emirs and other Arab royalty too much, Bush told them they can probably keep their various monarchies even if they do democratize. He compared his vision for bringing democratic governance to the Arab world to what the United States did in Asia after World War II, beginning with occupied Japan. "The results are now in," he said. "Today the people of Japan have both a working democracy and a hereditary emperor." (Never mind that Akihito has no power.) When Steve Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, was asked what the emirs' response was to the president's "freedom agenda," he responded with an image as underwhelming as the president's speech. "Heads nod. Heads nod," Hadley said. This was true: a number of audience members in Abu Dhabi were nodding off as Bush spoke
Haaa Bush - what a hypocrite.
Anyway, this part I did not agree with:
In fact, the creator of Wahhabism, the 18th-century thinker Mohammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, was notorious among Muslims of his time for being something of an extremist himself. He vandalized shrines, and he was denounced by many Islamic theologians for his "doctrinal mediocrity and illegitimacy," as the scholar Abdelwahab Meddeb notes in "Islam and Its Discontents." The upshot is that Western consumers are paying hundreds of billions of dollars in oil profits to help educate and fund their own potential murderers.
None of this would have happened had it not been for the petro-dollar. The Saudis would have stayed obscure Bedouins and Wahhabism little more than a cult. But because of their oil wealth, the Saudis were able to spread Wahhabism's seed worldwide, making it far more mainstream than it would have been otherwise. As one Egyptian intellectual described it me, "It's as if Jimmy Swaggart had come into hundreds of billions of dollars and taken over most of Christianity."
How does this explain Iran and their f*cked up Islamic State? What about all the bombings in Lebanon? What about how f*cked up Pakistan is? What about the legal bigotry in Malaysia and how they ban Islamic people from converting? What about all the Xians who lost their heads in Indonesia? Look at how f*cked up Egypt is. Look at all the bla-bla-bla-Stans with their petty dictators. What about Sudan - Arab African Muslims killing African African Muslims? Not to mention Iraq. etc.... etc... etc.....
I hardly think ALL of this can be laid at the feet of KSA.
Actually, it can't.
Michael
This is an interesting, if not obvious, take on KSA and their take on Islam called Wahhabism.
A couple good excepts:
The president seemed to know he wasn't exactly calling for democratic revolution in the Mideast. His underwhelming speech—touted before the trip as a high point—was a kind of have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too address. So as not to upset the emirs and other Arab royalty too much, Bush told them they can probably keep their various monarchies even if they do democratize. He compared his vision for bringing democratic governance to the Arab world to what the United States did in Asia after World War II, beginning with occupied Japan. "The results are now in," he said. "Today the people of Japan have both a working democracy and a hereditary emperor." (Never mind that Akihito has no power.) When Steve Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, was asked what the emirs' response was to the president's "freedom agenda," he responded with an image as underwhelming as the president's speech. "Heads nod. Heads nod," Hadley said. This was true: a number of audience members in Abu Dhabi were nodding off as Bush spoke
Haaa Bush - what a hypocrite.
Anyway, this part I did not agree with:
In fact, the creator of Wahhabism, the 18th-century thinker Mohammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, was notorious among Muslims of his time for being something of an extremist himself. He vandalized shrines, and he was denounced by many Islamic theologians for his "doctrinal mediocrity and illegitimacy," as the scholar Abdelwahab Meddeb notes in "Islam and Its Discontents." The upshot is that Western consumers are paying hundreds of billions of dollars in oil profits to help educate and fund their own potential murderers.
None of this would have happened had it not been for the petro-dollar. The Saudis would have stayed obscure Bedouins and Wahhabism little more than a cult. But because of their oil wealth, the Saudis were able to spread Wahhabism's seed worldwide, making it far more mainstream than it would have been otherwise. As one Egyptian intellectual described it me, "It's as if Jimmy Swaggart had come into hundreds of billions of dollars and taken over most of Christianity."
How does this explain Iran and their f*cked up Islamic State? What about all the bombings in Lebanon? What about how f*cked up Pakistan is? What about the legal bigotry in Malaysia and how they ban Islamic people from converting? What about all the Xians who lost their heads in Indonesia? Look at how f*cked up Egypt is. Look at all the bla-bla-bla-Stans with their petty dictators. What about Sudan - Arab African Muslims killing African African Muslims? Not to mention Iraq. etc.... etc... etc.....
I hardly think ALL of this can be laid at the feet of KSA.
Actually, it can't.
Michael