Guest MINDSETTER™ Matt Fecteau: The Islamic State: Saudi Arabia’s Baby

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Matt Fecteau, GoLocalProv Guest MINDSETTER™

We are once again preparing to engage in war against a terrorist group called the Islamic State.  While brutal, the Islamic State’s ideology is nothing new; it is a byproduct of a two hundred year old religious sect originating from Saudi Arabia, but let’s start from the beginning. 

A Convenient Marriage

Besides being Muslim, most of the radical groups the US is fighting have one thing in common: they are inspired by a specific Islamic Sunni sect known as Wahhabism (also known as Salafism). This ultra-defensive, conservative, and intolerant sect seeks to replicate the 7th century caliphate.

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Wahhabism originates back to Arabia in the 19th century when a religious scholar named Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab and a local city ruler, Muhammad bin Saud, joined forces to unify Arabia. Eventually, their descendants captured the two holiest sites in Islam, Mecca and Medina, and created the state of Saudi Arabia in 1932. 

Exporting Insanity 

In the 20th century, with the world increasingly dependent on petroleum, Saudi Arabia and the United States worked together to thwart the advances of the godless Soviet Union.  With their vast amounts of crude oil deposits,   Saudi Arabia accumulated massive amounts of wealth selling to industrialized countries. 

Eventually, to prove their piousness, the Saudi crown began exporting Wahhabism across the globe through Mosques and Madrassas pushing their intolerant brand of Islam across the globe. Millions were sent to refugee camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan to promote their ideology, and promote jihad against the Soviet Union.  

Historian Benard Lewis makes an analogy: 

"Imagine that the Ku Klux Klan gets total control of the state of Texas. And the Ku Klux Klan has at its disposal all the oil rigs in Texas. And they use this money to set up a well-endowed network of colleges and schools throughout Christendom, peddling their peculiar brand of Christianity. You would then have an approximate equivalent of what has happened in the modern Muslim world."   

Because so few effective government services in war ravaged areas such as Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the local populations are ripe for fanaticism.  Displaced people typically become deeply dependent on these services, and are also indoctrinated in the process.

Unintended Consequences 

Of course, this did not come without a price.  

From the Pakistani refugee camps, the Taliban emerged to institute Sharia across Afghanistan, and gave sanctuary to another Wahhabist group called al Qaeda.  After the US incursion in Afghanistan and Iraq, many al Qaeda fighters transitioned to Iraq seeing it has a more conducive environment to spread their theology.   

With al Qaeda’s near defeat and the Arab Spring, the radicals took advantage of the chaos in Syria to impose their own version of Sharia law on the unsuspecting population, and expanded back into Iraq. Eventually, they would rename themselves the Islamic State. 

The End Justifies the Means 

These radicals see their Islam under siege by the secular world.  In most cases, they target the country that symbolizes modernity: the United States.  

The Islamic States sees this as a battle of good vs. evil.  Though the Islamic State is not a monolithic entity, many seek to insulate themselves from the vices of modernity.  Every transgression no matter how awful is excused for the sake of the greater good. 

To them, every action taken by the west is an act of war.  When Muslims claimed to create a Caliphate in Syria and Iraq (brutally torturing, raping, and murdering non-believers in the process), these radicals see a humanitarian intervention by the west as further evidence Islam is under attack only fomenting greater rage. 

…..Enter Social Media 

With the advent of social media, secular influences are amplified and graying geographical boundaries.  Even countries once considered pious, these radicals see the secular world seeping in whether it be music from Britney Spears, or movies from Leonardo DiCaprio.

In addition, fringe groups, such as the Islamic State in Iraq or Yemen’s al Qaeda, use social media to expand recruitment. Now, these violent radicals are capable of reaching alienated, loners in secular, western countries such as the United States and France.  From the comfort of their own home, people can be indoctrinated and transformed into soldiers fighting in defense of Islam. 

While 9/11 shocked the world, with the help of social media, terror groups such as the Islamic State can terrorize people every day from the comfort of their homes with constant atrocities. The more shocking the act, the more publicity gained, and the more funding and recruits. 

Frankenstein’s Monster

Saudi Arabia was originally responsible for distorting and mutating Islam.  As a result, al Qaeda emerged as a prominent terrorist organization after 9/11.  Now, a new threat emerged called the Islamic State, fostered and nurtured by the same ideology has taken a more radical course.  

As terrible as the Islamic State’s decapitations are, we must remember: the overseer of the two holiest states in Islam, Saudi Arabia, justify decapitations under the guise of Sharia law to this day. The brutal tactics used by the Islamic State are almost identical to those of Saudi Arabia; the Islamic State just posts them on Twitter and radical forums.   

A number of allegations have been made about Saudi Arabia supporting the Islamic State.  The airstrikes Saudi Arabia has conducted are likely not meant to destroy the Islamic State, but keep them in check. Saudi Arabia seeks to depose the Syrian government, and like the Soviet war in Afghanistan, seeks to bleed the Syrian government out. 

Though brutal, the Islamic State is Saudi Arabia’s incarnation, but taken to almost immeasurable extremes. The question is: just how much further will the Islamic State go? 

Matt Fecteau ([email protected]) was a Democratic congressional candidate for the first congressional district of Rhode Island, former White House National security intern, and captain in the US Army Reserve with two tours to Iraq. Twitter: @MatthewFecteau

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