Encyclopedia of Islam

Wahhabism

  

705  J

---

tribes that had been recently settled in villages 

under the supervision of the mutawwaa and Wah-

habi ulama. The Ikhwan were fierce fighters who 

treated the populations of towns that opposed 

them brutally. They destroyed any shrines and 

tombs that offended their puritanical religious 

sensibilities. After the conquest of the Hijaz (west-

ern Arabia), however, they rebelled against Ibn 

Saud, who successfully defeated them with the 

backing of Wahhabi ulama. In the rebellion’s after-

math, he centralized his control over the country 

and reasserted Saudi authority in political affairs. 

The Saudi wars of expansion came to an end with 

the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 

in 1932.

Wahhabism has developed in two different 

directions since the kingdom was founded. On the 

one hand, it has become the official religion of a 

rapidly modernizing Islamic state, bolstered by 

oil

wealth. Major decisions are made only after con-

sultation with the Supreme Council of the Ulama, 

who claim the right to issue legal opinions and 

judgments on the basis of ijtihad (independent 

legal reasoning), rather than legislative law. Fam-

ily and political ties continue to bind the Al Saud 

to the Al al-Shaykh, who hold the portfolios for 

the ministries of religious affairs and justice. In 

addition, the mutawwaa serve the state as religious 

police, operating as a branch of the Ministry of the 

Interior. They strictly enforce conformity to the 

staunch moral conservatism of their sect, includ-

ing gender segregation, dress codes, the bans on 

alcohol and gambling, and censorship of books, 

magazines, television, videos, and music. Reli-

gious courts sentence defendants to death who 

have been found guilty of major moral crimes 

such as adultery, drug trafficking, and murder. 

Saudi state Wahhabism is also often criticized for 

the intolerant attitude it holds for other religions 

and other forms of Islam.

The second direction that Wahhabism has 

taken, particularly among the younger generations 

since the 1970s, is sometimes called neo-Wah-

habism, or s

alaFism

. It has been shaped by oppo-

sitional Islamist ideologies espoused by groups 

such as the m

Uslim

  b

rotherhood

 and radical 

jihadist organizations. Proponents of this type of 

Wahhabism condemn Saudi government corrup-

tion and injustice and seek to radically transform 

other Muslim societies to bring them under the 

rule of their concept of the sharia, even through 

violence. This kind of Wahhabism is epitomized 

by U

sama

 

bin

 l

adin

 (b. 1957) and 

al

-q

aida

. Both 

kinds of Wahhabism have achieved global influ-

ence as a result of oil, the print and electronic 

media, mass education, labor migration, regional 

and international conflicts, and disenchantment 

with corrupt and authoritarian governments.

See also  i

slamism

; 

Jihad

 

movements

; 

politics

and

 i

slam

; 

reneWal

 

and

 

reForm

 

movements

.