SECRETARY OF STATE Colin Powell thinks "it's a little odd" for the United States to be telling our Saudi allies that they should "muzzle dissent, . . . muzzle those [in Saudi Arabia] who are speaking out against us" and our campaign in Afghanistan.
But the main public critics of the United States in Saudi Arabia are no ordinary "dissenters." They are the Islamofascist imams and muftis of the Wahhabi sect, the ideological arm of the Saudi royal dictatorship. Secretary Powell's solicitousness for the rights of these extremists seems to be based on two unfortunate misconceptions. One is that the Saudi regime is, and should be, part of an alliance with the United States. The other combines a misplaced belief that American standards of free speech should extend to those who plot our destruction, with obliviousness to the global reach of the Wahhabi-Saudi network.
As Powell should be aware, the Wahhabi-Saudi establishment subsidizes terrorism while seeking to control Muslim religious institutions and activities around the world. Saudi influence reaches even the overwhelming majority of mosques in the United States. The issue, therefore, is not muzzling the Wahhabis, but removing the muzzle from their victims, over whom they exercise an abusive control.
There are many critics of Wahhabism-Saudism among American Muslims, but few who are willing to speak out by name for the record. Most have been intimidated into silence. In addition, among the enemies of the Wahhabi-Saudi conspiracy, some of the angriest, most knowledgeable, and most forthcoming with information are not pro-American; they are
angry at Riyadh for its compromises with the West. Yet their rage at Saudi duplicity leads them to publicize damaging and verifiable information about Saudi mischief.
Sheikh Hisham Kabbani of the Islamic Supreme Council of America is one critic of Wahhabism who falls into neither of these problematic categories. He is an eloquent public opponent of Wahhabi efforts to regiment American Muslims; and he fully supports American democratic values, as well as a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Arab conflict. In 1999, Kabbani warned that 80 percent of mosques in the United States are subject to Wahhabi manipulation, through financial subsidies. More recently he wrote of the spreading influence of Wahhabis, who often go by the cover name "Salafis": "Supported by certain regimes pursuing specific ideologies, 'Salafis' are taking over the mosques built in Europe and North America, mostly by Indian and Pakistani immigrants, by means of elections and funding."
But Wahhabi domination involves much more than control over money and the elected governing assemblies of mosques; it also means dictating the curriculum for the training of imams, setting the tone and content of sermons, deciding what books and periodicals may be read in mosque libraries or sold in mosque bookshops, and excluding or otherwise suppressing dissenters.
Wahhabism is based on the justification and promotion of violence against all, including Muslims, who do not share the Wahhabi outlook. Kabbani has called this its "most harmful legacy to society." Pious youths from Muslim countries, sent to be educated in the Gulf states, are brainwashed. On returning to their homes, they brusquely reject the traditional Islam of their parents. Further, they are taught to abstain from all participation in society outside Wahhabi mosques and organizations. For American Muslims this means, Kabbani notes, that they must not vote, serve on juries, or join in interfaith activities. Such strictures prevented the numerous imams and activists associated with Wahhabi mosques in the United States from joining forces with Jews, Christians, and others in behalf of the Muslim victims of the Balkan wars.
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