Founded by an Arabian cleric in the 18th century, the Wahhabi school seeks to purify Islam through a return to the putative practices and ideas of Muhammad and his earliest followers. Spread assiduously throughout the Muslim world by Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism has more recently been named as centrally responsible for the rise of radical, jihadist Islam. David Andrew Weinberg cautions against exaggerating the sect’s role—groups like Hamas and the various Shiite jihadists supported by Iran are not Wahhabis—while also arguing that it certainly merits its share of the blame:
If terrorism is the result of multiple factors, certainly it is conceivable that Wahhabism is one of them. The brutal Islamic State opted to use Saudi Arabia’s strict textbooks in its schools until 2015. . . European nations that provide the richest IS recruiting grounds have been places like Belgium and Kosovo, where Wahhabi proselytization and relative deprivation collide. . . .
[It’s true] that terrorist recruits sometimes hail from countries where Wahhabi evangelism has been relatively limited, such as Tunisia, Syria, or Iraq. But while Tunisians are reportedly the largest group of foreign fighters in Syria, Saudis are reportedly in second place and sometimes serve in positions of authority for groups like IS. Saudis were also one of the largest contingents of foreign fighters during the U.S. occupation of Iraq. . . .
[Furthermore, while Saudi Arabia] deserves credit for regularly condemning terrorist attacks, its defenders routinely downplay instances when it embraces Wahhabism’s more intolerant strain or the clerics who promote it. Riyadh’s state school textbooks have historically been rife with incitement against Shiites, Christians, Jews, women, LGBT individuals, and the West. According to the State Department, at least some derogatory passages still remain. The books have emerged in over a dozen countries across Asia, Africa, and Europe.
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