Tawhid or Jihad: What Wahhabism Is and Is Not by David E. Long Dr. David E. Long is a retired US Foreign Service officer, a teacher, author, and a specialist on Saudi Arabia and the Gulf and on international terrorism. 'Wahhabism was first introduced in the central Arabian region of Najd in the mid- 18th century by Shaykh Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab (c. 1703-c. 1792). Since then, it has been one of the most maligned of any religious reform movement in modern history. That in itself is not so extraordinary. Wahhabism is essentially a puritanical, fundamentalist Islamic reform movement calling for renewal of the faith as originally laid out in the Qur’an and the Sunna, the inspired traditions of our beloved Rasul and his early converts. Reform movements advocating major doctrinal changes are always likely to be threatening to those who resist any change of the existing status quo. In addition, over the years Wahhabism has acquired a political dimension that has been threatening to a broad spectrum of people. In order to understand what Wahhabism is and is not, therefore, one must look both at what it actually advocates as a religious reform movement and what political implications have evolved since its founding.'
Posted on: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 22:06:26 +0000
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