European Muslim Hate Poll

[Dill]

(02-19-2017, 07:39 PM)hollodero Wrote: Well...
...maybe it plays a part on some level. But directly, the Saud clan used Wahabism to ideologically fire up the uniting of the peninsula around 1800, and they did so by fighting other non-Wahabistic Arab tribes. There were no European colonialists there at the time, and why would they, there was only Mekka and a lot of sand. Sure there were Ottomans, but only on paper, because, well, sand.
Wahhabism was first introduced around 1740. No Europeans occupying oasis back then, too. The enemy were other muslim tribes/clans.

But whatever, it isn't really important.

I don't think Bels meant Wahabism was founded in response to colonialism.  It was more like the Calvinist/Lutheran response to "excesses" of Catholicism--an effort to purify and return to simple origins, a critique of existing (especially Cosmopolitan) Ottoman and Egyptian Islam, and Shia, which was making inroads in Bahrain and the area we now call southern Iraq.

The point is that Saudi money and the breakdown of alternatives have created fertile ground for its spread. The inability of some Middle-Eastern countries to control their own destiny, having been run by Europeans (forcing European laws and customs upon them) or European backed leaders or bad Arab leaders purveying Western-style political ideologies (Ba'athism) has made a "pure" conservative "untainted" Islam seem the remedy.  E.g., The Saudis have pumped millions into Egypt in support of Wahabist Imams and Mosques and organizations, including the more conservative organizations flying under the "Mulslim Brotherhood" umbrella.

So ironically, it is this supposed foundation outside western influence, its desert purity and simplicity, which make it the antidote to "tainted" cosmopolitan Islam. That is why, as I mentioned, almost no women in Cairo wore the Hijab in the 1980, whereas now it is rare to see a woman without one. There is a low intensity social war going on in many Arab Muslim countries generated by this rising attraction to Wahabism. Every country is different though.  Critical, I think, disruption created by dispossession and war (Gaza, Southern Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan), or smothering political oppression (Tunisia, Egypt).  Wahabism has much less influence in Jordan, where many women don't wear the hijab.

This "purity" also makes it attractive to confused westerners who need both internal (personality) and external structure in their lives.

PS sorry Hollo. I wrote this before I saw your post #33.