Wahhabi (Saudi) Responsibility

[David Morris]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2015_11/wahhabi_responsibility058651.php

It was the height of the Cold War and Arab tyrants saw an opportunity: They
could hold on to power indefinitely by repressing the dissidents in their
midst—most of them secular leftists—and by encouraging the religious right
wing, with tacit or overt approval from the United States and other Western
allies. Into the void created by the decimation of the Arab world’s secular
left, the Wahhabis stepped in, with almost unlimited financial resources.
Wahhabi ideas spread throughout the region not because they have any
merit—they don’t—but because they were and remain well funded. We cannot
defeat ISIS without defeating the Wahhabi theology that birthed it. And to
do so would require spending as much effort and money in defending liberal
ideas….

The beheadings, the crucifixions, the destruction of cultural heritage that
ISIS practices—none of these are new. They all happened, and continue to
happen, in Saudi Arabia too. The government of Saudi Arabia has beheaded
more people this year than ISIS. It persecutes Shias and atheists. It has
slowly destroyed sites of cultural and religious significance around Mecca
and Medina. To almost universal indifference, it has been bombing Yemen for
seven months. Yet whenever terror strikes, it escapes notice and evades
responsibility. In this, it is aided and abetted by Western governments,
who buy oil from tyrants and sell them weapons, while paying lip service to
human rights.
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