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By U. Mahesh Prabhu

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This book by Stephen Schwartz (a Sufi Muslim) consists of unusual account focusing on a murderous cult
in Islam called ͞Wahhabism͟. He fervently believes that ͞Islamaphobia͟ is owing to acts of ͞misguided͟
Muslims ͞in the name of Islam͟. ͞Wahhabism͟, the actual state religion of Saudi Arabia is, according to
him, ͞one of the main perpetrators misleading the Muslim youths into terrorism.͟ What he has to say
about them ʹ in particular ʹ is something which Muslims as well as non-Muslims ʹ alike ʹ can seldom
afford to Ignore.

Saudi Arabia͛s state religion is, in fact, Wahhabism, a more radical version of Islam; a murderous cult in
every sense. Its founder Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab was born in 1703. Schwartz recalls that ͞during
his vagabondage Ibn Abd al-Wahhab came into contact with certain Englishmen who encouraged him to
personal ambition as well as to critical attitude about Islam. Soon, the itinerant Arab and the imperial
British shared a goal: the liquidation of the Ottoman Empire.͟

His teachings ͞essentially came down to three points. First, ritual is superior to intentions. Second, no
reverence of the dead is permitted. Third, there can be no intercessory prayer addressed to God by
means of the Prophet or saints.͟ And if Muslim(s) dared to defy, or disregard, him he would condemn
them as ͞Kafir͟ (read non-Muslims) and even order their killing. According to Schwartz ͞Ibn Abd al-
Wahhab is said to have killed a blind caller to prayer, or `
, who insisted on praying for the
Prophet at the conclusion of his summons to worship, as required by the four established legal schools
in Islam. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab also condemned the habit of those making hajj in Mecca to visit the
Prophet͛s tomb in Medina.͟ What͛s surprising to know is his ͞hate͟ and ͞opposition͟ for celebration of
Prophet͛s birthday ` 
 

Though his doctrines explicitly downgraded the status of Muhammad, he claimed to have lived a life so
close to exemplary  of Muhammad that he could stand as a peer to the Prophet himself. It is clear
from this that Ibn Abd al-Wahhab saw himself as an equal of the Prophet, a view that is also thoroughly
heretical in Islam.

According to accounts of Al-Zahawi, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab ͞made no secret͟ of his opinion that all Muslims
had fallen into unbelief and that if they did not follow him, ͞they should all be killed, their wives and
daughter violated, and their possessions confiscated.͟

The Prophet of Islam had ͞believed͟ that ͞at the head of every century Allah would send someone who
would revive the faith,͟ as opposed to reforming it. Yet ͞Ibn Abd al-Wahhab ordered that graves of
Muslim saints be dug up and scattered, or turned into Latrines.͟ He even ͞despised music͟. Even today
Wahhabis (followers of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab) view music ͞as an incitement to forgetfulness of God and to
sin.͟

His ͞reform of Islam͟ began in strange ways. ͞He began his campaign͟ notes author ͞by cutting down a
tree beloved of local mystics.͟

But how did a heretic like Ibn Abd al-Wahhab cared to gain so much of popularity? Stephen Schwartz
gives a perfect explanation. After ͞Ibn Abd al-Wahhab had mounted a challenge to the Ottoman order, a
fatwa was issued calling for his arrest. Like his own family, the people of Najd began to spilt between his
supporters and his opponents. In 1744 he took refuge in the village of Dariyah, a district that was ruled
by a local rebel, Muhammad ibn Saud, and his family known as Al Saud.͟

Al Saud ͞as rulers of Dariyah͟ engaged in the only organized economic endeavor found in the backward
environment of Najd: ͞banditry͟. Because of their involvement in illegal activities they were in constant
conflict with Ottomans, who had issued order for the arrest of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab
and Al Saud now had a common enemy - a good reason to form a formidable alliance.

This alliance was later forged with the help of British, who too despised the Ottoman Empire. British
were then taking control of the richer and more valuable parts of the Arabian Peninsula: the coastal
emirates from Kuwait to Aden.

Al Saud͛s were not known as ͞firm Muslims͟; indeed, they belonged to the tribe of Bani Hanifah, who
were ͞tainted by having supported Musaylima the Liar͟. Musaylima had contended against the
Muhammad for Prophet-hood. From the very beginning the family͛s religious bona fides were
͞somewhat doubtful.͟

The book suggests that ͞Dariyah was a lawless place ruled by the whims of Al Saud until 1747, when Ibn
Abd al-Wahhab and Al Saud established a crude government based on a unique power sharing
agreement, with the former as religious authority and the later as political ruler. They contracted
marriage between their families ʹ a typical means of cementing alliances in tribal and clan based
societies ʹ and agreed that power should be inherited exclusively by their descendants, as if their
lineage carried greater authority than that of Muhammad, who neither imposed his successor nor made
any attempts to establish a dynasty.͟

Alleges the author ͞By marriage and inheritance, the bloody swords of Al Saud came to aid the perverse
vision of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab in a unique fusion of religious and political control, a system in which faith
and statecraft would be run as a family business. This political formula has its fullest expression in
modern Saudi Arabia. It also represents a complete break with the traditions of scholars of Islam, who
were typically thoughtful, unworldly men, not political schemers after global power.͟

Wahhabis have an extraordinary hatred for Shi͛ism. Shi͛as ͞may simply have become objects of Wahhabi
assault because they were richer than the Bedouins of Najd and offered tempting opportunities for
plunder. What ever its source, however, bile against the Shi͛as has remained constant throughout
Wahhabi-Saudi history. Today the Saudi school systems, following Wahhabi tenets, teach their children
and other Muslims throughout the d`` (Islamic fraternity) that Shi͛a Islam was invented by
imaginary Jewish convert, that Shi͛a theologians are liars, that their legal traditions are false, and that
they are not Muslims at all!͟

The author quotes several atrocities by Wahhabis against Muslims who dared to defy them. They were
truly ruthless in their endeavors of converting Muslims into their fold. In the advent of Ta͛if, it is noted
that ͞Wahhabis killed every woman, man and child they saw, slashing with their swords even babies in
cradles. The streets were flooded with blood.͟ Prior to this when Wahhabis had attacked the Shi͛a holy
city of Karbala, in Iraq between Bagdad and the Arabian frontier, they also ͞wrecked and looted the
tomb of Husain, grandson of Prophet.͟

Stephen Schwartz is very apt in his observation that had Britain for its part ͞not encouraged the
Wahhabis, with an eye to the eventual Turkish collapse and division of Ottoman possessions.͟ this
murderous cult of Islam would have never been as powerful as they are today.

Even back in India there is a great following for Wahhabis. The Islamist hate monger Dr. Zakir Naik,
who͛s banned in UK and Canada, is one such Wahhabi. However, the advent wasn͛t too recent. Wahhabi
theology entered India with Sayid Ahmad Barelvi. ͞This personage had gone on pilgrimage to Mecca in
1820. When he returned two years later he established a Wahhabi center in Patna on the upper Ganges
in northeastern India. He and his agents began preaching in Afghanistan, and in 1826 launched ͞jihad͟
against the Sikhs in Punjab. In 1830 his forces seized Peshawar, and he was soon killed in battle, fighting
Pashtuns who had sided with the Sikhs.

The Saudi aristocracy is today known as ͞airport Wahhabis͟. This is because ͞Once their private jet
leaves the runways, bottles of whiskey appears, women͛s veils disappears, and they all have a high
time.͟

The ͞Saudi oil prince͟ has today become an unparalleled symbol of debauchery, ostentation, and waste,
as well as ignorance, prejudice and brutality. Expenditures to clothe and bejewel their women, indulge
their children, build and decorate their palaces, and otherwise satisfy their appetites has today become
legendary. Their taste has led them to taverns, casinos, brothels, and similar establishments. They buy
fleets of automobiles and private jets, and yachts with size of warships. They invest in valuable Western
art which they do not understand or like and which often offend the sensitivities of Wahhabi clerics.
They spend as they wish, becoming patrons of international sexual enslavement and the exploitation of
children. ͞Yet at the same time,͟ says the author, adding ͞they dedicate a large proportion of their
wealth for promotion of international Wahhabi radicalism, in a desperate attempt to bridge gulf
between pretense and reality.͟

However there are several instances in this book where critics of Islam will beg to disagree, especially
with regard to Prophet Muhammad, Shi͛as and Iran ʹ especially Khomeini. Yet, the fact that Stephen
Schwartz has done a yeoman service not just to non-Wahhabi Muslims but also to non-Muslims through
this well researched book should remain undisputed.