If you like the article on Shiism, you might like this. I wrote this just after 9/11. In reading it over now, I see that it is possible to take away from this essay the idea that Wahhabism is the sole source of Jihadism in the modern Islamic World. This would be an error. Jihadism has many wellsprings. Wahhabism, The Society of the Muslim Brethren, Deobandism, etc.
To some extent Jihadism appears to be a recurring phenomenon in Islamic history and in particular in the history of its relations with the West.
Enthusiasm for the expansionist and unversal aspirations of the faith waxes and wanes over time. This occurs as the memory dies out in participant generations of the massive casualties and woeful destruction of societies and infrastructure that result from periods of jihadism.
Translation" "This, too, will pass," but only as the fire burns down to banked embers. The hard line zealots? Ah, well. They must go.
Pat Lang
Interesting reading. If I understand correctly the Whabbi movement is the underlying belief of Al-Qa’ida network. What proposal do you have to counter both the Whabbi movement and the Al-Qa’ida network?
Thanks for insights.
Directly after 9-11 I focussed on the central role of Wahhabism & Islamic fudamentalism back through the centuries. gradually I became convinced that in Al Qeda at least, Wahhabism is to the movement and anti semitism was to the nazis – a convenient way to rally the masses. cetainly Zawahiri is primarily secular, and I believe Bin laden is secular as well.