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EU Parliament identifies Wahabi and Salafi roots of global terrorism

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European Parliament identifies Wahabi and Salafi roots of global terrorism

2013-07-20 15:57:26

It is not merely the faith or oil that flows out of Saudi Arabia. The oil-rich Arab state and its neighbours are busy financing Wahabi and Salafi militants across the globe.
A recent report by the European Parliament reveals how Wahabi and Salafi groups based out of the Middle East are involved in the "support and supply of arms to rebel groups around the world." The report, released in June 2013, was commissioned by European Parliament's Directorate General for External Policies. The report warns about the Wahabi/Salafi organisations and claims that "no country in the Muslim world is safe from their operations ... as they always aim to terrorise their opponents and arouse the admiration of their supporters."

The nexus between Arab charities promoting Wahabi and Salafi traditions and the extremist Islamic movements has emerged as one of the major threats to people and governments across the globe. From Syria, Mali, Afghanistan and Pakistan to Indonesia in the East, a network of charities is funding militancy and mayhem to coerce Muslims of diverse traditions to conform to the Salafi and Wahabi traditions. The same networks have been equally destructive as they branch out of Muslim countries and attack targets in Europe and North America.

Despite the overt threats emerging from the oil-rich Arab states, governments across the globe continue to ignore the security imperative and instead are busy exploiting the oil-, and at time times, blood-soaked riches.

The European Parliament's report though is a rare exception to the rule where in the past the western governments have let the oil executives influence their foreign offices. From the United States to Great Britain, western states have gone to great lengths to ignore the Arab charities financing the radical groups, some of whom have even targeted the West with deadly consequences.

While the recent report by the European Parliament documents the financial details connecting the Arab charities with extremists elsewhere, it is certainly not the first exposition of its kind. A 2006 report by the US Department of State titled, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report - Money Laundering and Financial Crimes, reported that “Saudi donors and unregulated charities have been a major source of financing to extremist and terrorist groups over the past 25 years.” One of the WikiLeaks documents, a cable from the US Consulate in Lahore also stated that “financial support estimated at nearly 100 million USD annually was making its way to Deobandi and Ahl-e-Hadith clerics in the region from ‘missionary’ and ‘Islamic charitable’ organisations in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates ostensibly with the direct support of those governments.”

The European Parliament’s report estimates that Saudi Arabia alone has spent over $10 billion to promote Wahabism through Saudi charitable foundations. The tiny, but very rich, state of Qatar is the new entrant to the game supporting militant franchises from Libya to Syria.

The linkage between Saudi-based charitable organisations and militants began in the late 70s in Pakistan. A network of charitable organisations was setup in Pakistan to provide the front for channeling billions of dollars to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Since then the militant networks have spread globally, emerging as a major threat to international security. Charlie Wilson’s War, a book by George Crile that was made into a movie, details the Saudi-militancy nexus as well as Ahmed Rashid’s Taliban.

While ordinary citizens in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other countries have suffered the deadly consequences of militancy supported by the Wahabi and Salafi charitable organisations, the Saudi government had remained largely dormant. This changed in 2003 when militants attacked targets in Riyadh. Since then, the Saudi government has kept a close watch on the domestic affairs of charities, making it illegal to sponsor militancy, but the government has done precious little to curtail activities by Saudi charities abroad. In fact, evidence, as per the European Parliament’s report, suggests that Saudi and Qatar-based charities have been actively financing militants in Egypt, Syria, Libya, Mali, and Indonesia.

Pakistan has suffered tremendously over the past three decades from domestic and foreign inspired militancy. The Soviet invasion in Afghanistan and the US-backed Afghan militancy forced Pakistan into a civil war that has continued to date. The faltering Pakistani economy did not help. Successive governments have rushed to Saudi monarchs asking for loans and free oil in times of need. However, Saudi money comes bundled with Saudi propaganda and a license to convert Pakistanis to a more 'puritan', read Wahabi, version of Islam.

In late the 70s, Iranians also intensified their influence in Pakistan. While hardline Sunnis were being radicalised by the Wahabi influences from Saudi Arabia, Iranian influence on Pakistani Shias was also increasing. And whereas Pakistan did not need any further radicalization of its people, the Saudi-Iranian tussle spilled into the streets of Pakistan with devastating consequences for religious minorities and liberal streams of Sunni Islam.

At the same time, the economic collapse in Pakistan forced many to find jobs abroad. Millions of Pakistanis left for the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia. While the remittances kept their families and the Pakistani government afloat, the migrant workers returned to Pakistan after being radicalised during their stay in Saudi. They became the brand ambassadors for the Saudi-inspired Wahabi flavours of Islam, thus expediting the pace of radicalisation in Pakistan.

Pakistan was equally vulnerable to foreign influences after the devastating earthquake in 2005 and floods in 2010 and 2011. The European Parliament’s report revealed that these disasters provided Saudi and other Arab charities to channel millions of dollars in aid, of which an unknown amount was used to fund militant organisations who have broadened their reach in Pakistan resulting in over 45,000 violent deaths in the past few years alone.

Pakistanis have a very strong spiritual link with Saudi Arabia. However, they are suffering for the unbound devotion to the oil-rich state, which has done a poor job of curbing the financial support for militancy in Pakistan. Seeing the plight of violence stricken Pakistanis, one hopes that Saudi charities could be more charitable.
 
Link to the report (pdf format) for those who wish to read.

Some excerpts regarding funding in Afghanistan and Pakistan:

The invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union in1979 can be considered as the starting point of Saudi financing to Sunni Muslims fighting for religious or political goals. That war in particular was the occasion to affirm wahhabism as the “true belief”, insharp contrast to the atheism promoted by “infidel” communists and the “deviating” Islam followed by Sufis and Shiites (Firdous, 2009).
.....
Other interesting information regarding Saudi-based sponsors toward Taliban fighters have been found in leaked communications of the US State Department.According to the Wikileaks’ cable #178082 ****** recruitment networks were established in Punjab and supported with the funding of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates since 2005 (The Dawn, 2011).
.....
According to local Punjabis, the recruitment activities and the number of Deobandi and Ahl al-Hadith’s madrasas and mosques have dramatically risen since 2005. This surged was caused by an important influx of money coming from Islamic donors on behalf of the aforementioned charitable organisations as relief measure for the earthquake in Kashmir and North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
.....
The United States is well aware about the financing network starting from Arab countries and reaching terrorists organisations through charitable institutions. In the US State Department’s memo dated December 2009 it is written that “donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorists groups worldwide” (The Guardian, 2010/b). It is said that countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait do too little to stop rich and conservative donors from financing terrorist organisations through charitable and religious institutions.

There's so much more in the report.

And to worshippers of the 'brotherly nations': Told Ya!

-- RazorMC
 
Not this **** again... Look, I've said it a million times, Salafis actually make up a minority of the Islamic militants around the world. They tend to be more organized and financed, which is why they're considered a bigger threat, but they're not the main threat.

I seriously call into question this entire article. If the EU parliament takes this seriously, then I'm in serious doubt of the member's abilities to critically think.

The fact that it's linking to news articles that often highly opinionated and a youtube video that can never be verified by a third party, to provide evidence is not only chilling (because it shows the incompetence of the parliament's policies department in question), it's downright offensive to intellectual thought. This sort of behavior and evidence finding should be left to forumites and civilians, not a sort of governmental organization in charge of economic and foreign policies of multiple nations.

If they think that this so called "report" can be taken seriously by any peer review journal, then they're mistaken.

...Seriously...:angry:
 
Its true, but why blame them?

The real blame lies with the govts of these countries where there are unregulated laws regarding funding.

In every mosque and madrasa, every imam should be a govt employee paid and looked after by the govt.

The situation is so bad, that Musharraf wanted to register madrasas back in 2004/5, this resulted in violence.

Govt regulations is the only solution and any political party who tries to block this should be made to understand the realities and penalized.
 
Its true, but why blame them?

The real blame lies with the govts of these countries where there are unregulated laws regarding funding.

In every mosque and madrasa, every imam should be a govt employee paid and looked after by the govt.

The situation is so bad, that Musharraf wanted to register madrasas back in 2004/5, this resulted in violence.

Govt regulations is the only solution and any political party who tries to block this should be made to understand the realities and penalized.

This has many potential problems, here is a small example; It'll look like the government is trying to interfere in religious beliefs and dictate what is good and evil. While the gov may not actually have such attentions, the old saying "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" has a special meaning here; that being, if the gov tries, it will lead to the marginalization and growing animosity of the same people the gov is trying to protect, because they'll feel that the gov is trying to interfere in their faith and belief system. This is the exact thing that can lead to religious violence, and this is exactly what has happened in places like Iraq and Xinjiang being two of many.

Mosques and Imams should be privately funded, without the aid of governments, because it will only lead to trouble down the road.
 
we know it already... what happened in bhakkar will happen in whole pakistan if US attacks syria in order to pressurize Iran..
 
Wahabism is simply another word for violence and is a cancer to Pakistan. Wahabi/Salafi people are extremely intolerant and total mullahs. They should have no role in governing Pakistan but we find a mullah in every corner of Pakistan who is a Salafi or Wahabi.

The Saudis have spread Wahabism around the world and they feel no guilt for it. These same Wahabi terrorists are killing innocent Pakistani citizens. We need to eliminate terrorism and Wahabism stands for terrorism.
 
Wahabism is simply another word for violence and is a cancer to Pakistan. Wahabi/Salafi people are extremely intolerant and total mullahs. They should have no role in governing Pakistan but we find a mullah in every corner of Pakistan who is a Salafi or Wahabi.

The Saudis have spread Wahabism around the world and they feel no guilt for it. These same Wahabi terrorists are killing innocent Pakistani citizens. We need to eliminate terrorism and Wahabism stands for terrorism.


The fact is that when this strand of thinking was imported to Pakistan, in part due to state policy, it was totally incompatible and at total odds with Pakistan's make up. Pakistan on the whole is a sufi majority country, with a large shia minority, a significant Christian population and notable communities of Ismaili's, Hindus and other minorities. This was and still is in stark contrast to the make up of the Gulf kingdoms and Saudi where the majority are all Muslim and follow the Salafi school of interpretation.

The result was and still is a disaster and a literal clash of civilisations of sorts.
 
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