(Washington Times) - Arnaud de Borchgrave The 24,000-strong Saudi royal family has finally conceded that the root cause of Islamist terrorism has been its own Wahhabi ideology. Following the al-Qaeda bombings in Riyadh on May 12 that killed 35, including eight Americans, Saudi security and intelligence organizations reported that almost 1,000 Saudi clerics are either linked to, or in sympathy with, al-Qaeda. They have been fired or banned from addressing worshippers after Friday prayers. Crown Prince Abdullah has issued new regulations prohibiting any reference to jihad, or holy war, in radio and television broadcasts. The Saudi clergy has sent Wahhabi clerics as missionaries all over the world to build mosques and set up madrassas (Koranic schools that teach only religion, to the exclusion of all other disciplines). There are about 2,000 mosques in the U.S., most of them started by Wahhabi clerics. Following the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in February 1989, the Saudi Wahhabis lavished some $300 million a year on building a network of several thousand madrassas in Pakistan, whose graduates went on to Afghanistan for training in al-Qaeda's camps. The University for the Education of Truth, a leading madrassa in Khattak near Peshawar, graduated nine out of Taliban's top 10 leaders. With a student body of 2,500, the institution is fully funded by the Saudi clergy and wealthy Saudis.
2003-07-17 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive