An
award-winning journalist follows the money to track the pervasive spread of
Saudi Arabia’s particular brand of ultraconservative Islam.
Varagur,
who reports on Indonesia for the Guardian
and other South and Southeast Asian countries for a variety of publications, scrupulously
lays out three case studies in which Saudi Arabia has managed to export Wahhabism,
often in violent ways. The author looks at vibrant Salafi (the global brand of
Wahhabism) communities in Indonesia, where her work took her in recent years;
northern Nigeria, which has produced numerous states run by strict Sharia law
and given rise to Boko Haram; and Kosovo, a small country of 1.8 million people
that has nonetheless “contributed more foreign fighters per capita to ISIS than
any other country in Europe.” The leaders of these “thriving Salafi ecosystems”
were originally trained (indoctrinated) in Saudi Arabia, specifically at the
Islamic University of Medina, which was built in the early 1960s by King Faisal
and has become one of the most significant instruments of Saudi “dawa,” or call
to Islam that “refers to proselytization more generally.” With the injection of
oil money in the 1970s and the perceived threat of the Islamic Revolution in 1979,
the kingdom endowed several powerful charities—e.g., the Muslim World League,
which developed into a violent “intolerance factory.” In her three riveting,
thoroughly researched case studies, Varagur investigates why the Saudi brand of
Islam is so appealing: It is radical in its simplicity, clearly instructs
behavior, provides direct access to important texts, and offers a sense of
community to its believers worldwide. The author also chronicles how Faisal
personally sponsored delegations from IUM to African nations and how Saudi
charities were key elements in the effort to rebuild Kosovo after the 1998-1999
war.
Varagur
wisely allows many voices to be heard—and shows how Saudi influence is now more
transparent but still insidious.
