Saudi Arabia & IslamophobiaThe purpose of this presentation is to explain in greater details the culture, government, theology and the practices of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia(KSA). Of course it is all available on the web but my purpose is to focus on certain details for common people to understand the role KSA in the middle eastern area politics in general. But the critical area of concern is its ongoing influence on the 1.6 billion Muslims living all over the globe. Are they buying into Wahhabi and Salafi ideology which has an overlap with ISIS brutal practices in annihilating people randomly. A better understanding of the complex underlying problem will hopefully solve this menace diplomatically and peacefully without resorting to more bloody wars, with tremendous loss of life and resources. Apologies for any errors and omissions and its limited scope due to space.

Saudi Arabia, Dar-Islam for 1.6 billion Muslims

Guardian of Muslim Most Holy sites Mecca and MedinaFather of ISIS ?Salafi and Wahhabi IslamMuslim Homeland

Saudi Arabia Muslim Darislam Saudi Arabia founded 23 September 1932 Population 32.2 million Government: Unitary Islamic Absolute Monarchy GDP 1.668 Trillion(14th rank) Oil discovered 1938,largest producer and distributor, second

largest oil reserves Per Capita $53149(12th rank)

Riyadh kingdom Tower illuminated after the Paris deadly attack 11/17/15

Saudi Arabia Muslim Dari slam The rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) has led to  Western

criticism of Saudi Arabia.  Claiming that the Gulf kingdom, one of the West's most

important allies in the region, is not pulling its weight in the fight against the Islamic State.

That the Kingdom promotes a radical brand of Islam which overlaps with ISIS

Saudi Arabia Muslim Dari slam Non Muslims argue that the very theology upon which the

Saudi state depends — an ultraconservative brand of Islam dubbed Wahhabism — is the same as the apocalyptic distortion of Islam that drives that group to terrible acts. They argue that, far from being two enemies opposed to each other, the two powers are hopelessly intertwined.

Saudi Arabia Muslim Darislam A number of human

rights scandals in Saudi Arabia (including cases of public floggings, beheadings and "crucifixions") have further added fuel to that criticism.  In the aftermath of the Islamic State's attacks in Paris, Algerian writer Kamel Daoud summed up an article for the New York Times. "Daesh has a mother: the invasion of Iraq," Daoud explained, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. "But it also has a father: Saudi Arabia and its religious-industrial complex."

Saudi Arabia Muslim Darislam Saudi Arabia has one of the largest military budgets in the

world. It has been involved in the military fight against the Islamic State since last year, joining the U.S.-led coalition against the group in September and before that working with the United States to train rebels. Remarkably, Saudi princes even took part in the initial bombing run against the Islamic State

Saudi Arabia Muslim Darislam However, some analysts believe that the initial willingness to

militarily engage with the Islamic State has ended and that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf powers are taking a back seat to Western powers in the fight.

"Beyond the release of a photo purportedly showing F-15 pilots who flew the initial strike missions in Syria, the Saudis have said nothing about their role in the U.S.-led coalition," said Jeremy Binnie, Middle East editor at IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly. Bowen added that the United States has been very vague about the involvement of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states in the strikes on the Islamic State

Role of KSA in fight against ISIS Disagreements between the Gulf states over the plan of

action may well have been a factor in this withdrawal. However, it's also likely that the Saudi-led proxy war in Yemen against Iran-backed forces may well be diverting its attention.

Saudi Arabia Muslim Darislam On refugees An integral part of the crisis in Syria and, by extension, the fight against the

Islamic State, has been the refugee crisis that the civil war has created. The United Nations has estimated that half of Syria's pre-war population of 23 million has been displaced in the conflict and the Islamic State has shown itself willing to exploit the chaos for its own gain.

In Europe and the United States, there has been a wave of criticism against Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states for their apparent refusal to take significant numbers of refugees in. Last December, Amnesty International accused these states of offering "zero resettlement places to Syrian refugees."

Months later, Saudi Arabia hit back at these criticisms, saying that it had in fact given residency to a huge 2.5 million or so Syrian refugees. It has also made significant donations to the U.N. refugee agency, it said, totaling at least $90 million in 2015.

Saudi Arabia Muslim Darislam . Experts have concluded that Saudi Arabia

has taken in a large number of Syrians, though it has not been transparent in how it went about this and it has not given them the rights that refugee status would confer. Instead, most seem to come into the country on visas for foreign workers.  “made it a point not to deal with them as refugees” and that it had not wanted to “to show off or brag in the media."

Saudi Arabia Muslim Darislam In June 2014, Lori Plotkin Boghardt of the Washington

Institute published a policy analysis, concluded that "no credible evidence that the Saudi government is financially supporting ISIS."

Boghardt did note that there appeared to have been significant numbers of donations to the group from private Saudi citizens, despite the Saudi state's attempts to block these fundraising efforts. "Arab Gulf donors as a whole — of which Saudis are believed to be the most charitable — have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Syria in recent years, including to ISIS and other groups," Boghardt noted.

Saudi Arabia Muslim Darislam It's believed that at least 2,500 Saudis have traveled to Syria

to fight for the Islamic State, making the country one of the main sources of foreign recruits for the organization.

Saudi Arabia Muslim Darislam On theology While the Islamic State and the Saudi kingdom view each

other as enemies, it is hard to deny that there are many areas of crossover in their theological viewpoints.

According to a report from the New York Times' David Kirkpatrick, when the Islamic State began closing schools in the areas it conquered, it actually printed out copies of Saudi state textbooks it found online. Others have noted that some of the Islamic State's most notorious penalties — death by stoning for adultery, for example — can often  be found in Saudi Arabia (though they are used with far more discretion in the kingdom).

Saudi Arabia Muslim Darislam "Reform-minded Saudis called for the reevaluation of

the educational system and curricula, they advised deletion of materials that t fostered intolerance and extremism,”

Additionally, the country has made a big investment in institutions that are designed to reform extremists and terrorists.

Most Saudi officials and members of the ruling elite would favor some kind of reform in their country but that they are beholden to the Wahhabi clerics who hold significant sway there.

While the Saudi state has clamped down on the preachers who espouse support for the Islamic State, those who  preach a sectarianism that feeds into extremism have not been targeted.

Saudi Arabia Muslim Darislam One big worry is that, ultimately, Saudi Arabia is simply

more focused on its sectarian fight against Iran, the regional Shiite power, than the Islamic State, a weaker yet still dangerous Sunni threat.

"There is also a sense that ISIS, ugly as it may seem, is actually a useful temporary ally for Saudi Arabia so long as it can be corralled in the direction of Iran and its allies rather than Sunni majority states. The latter will likely trump any pressure that may be placed on Riyadh from the U.S., France, etc."

Education in KSA Saudi curriculum is not just dominated by Islam but suffers from Wahhabi

dogma that propagates hatred towards non-Muslim and non-Wahhabis and lacks technical and other education useful for productive employment

Memorization by rote of large parts of the Qu'ran, its interpretation and understandingTafsir) and the application of Islamic tradition to everyday life is at the core of the curriculum. Religion taught in this manner is also a compulsory subject for all

University students. As a consequence, Saudi youth "generally lacks the education and technical skills the private sector needs”

The Chronicle of Higher Education wrote in 2010 that "the country needs educated young Saudis with marketable skills and a capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship. That's not generally what Saudi Arabia's educational system delivers, steeped as it is in rote learning and religious instruction.

KSA propaganda of Wahhabi Islam "the Saudi public school religious curriculum continues to

propagate an ideology of hate toward the 'unbeliever', that is, Christians, Jews, Shiites, Sufis, Sunni Muslims who do not follow Wahhabi doctrine

Saudi Arabia sponsors and promotes the teaching of Wahhabism ideology which is adopted Nusra Front. This radical teaching takes place in Saudi funded mosques and madrasas across the region from Morocco, Pakistan to Indonesia, and the West.

Poverty in KSA Poverty Estimates of the number of Saudis below the poverty line

range from between 12.7%[378] and 25%[379] Press reports and private estimates as of 2013 "suggest that between 2 million and 4 million" of the country's native Saudis live on "less than about $530 a month" – about $17 a day – considered the poverty line in Saudi Arabia. In contrast, Forbes magazine estimates King Abdullah's personal fortune at $18 billion.[379]

Educational Reform in KSA Following the 9/11 attacks, the government aimed to tackle

the twin problems of encouraging extremism and the inadequacy of the country's university education for a modern economy, by slowly modernize the education system through the "Tatweer" reform program.[419] The Tatweer program is reported to have a budget of approximately US$2 billion and focuses on moving teaching away from the traditional Saudi methods of memorization and rote learning towards encouraging students to analyze and problem-solve. It also aims to create an education system which will provide a more secular and vocationally based training.[409][421]

Religion is Mandatory Islam is the state religion of Saudi Arabia and its law

requires that all citizens be Muslims.[311]

Neither Saudi citizens nor guest workers have the right of freedom of religion.The official and dominant form of Islam in the kingdom – Wahhabism—arose in the central region of Najd, the eighteenth century. Proponents call the movement "Salafism",[297]

and believe that its teachings purify the practice of Islam of innovations or practices that deviate from the seventh-century teachings of Muhammad and his companions.

Religious Police in KSA Saudi is one of the few countries that have “religious

police" (known as Haia or Mutaween), who patrol the streets "enjoining good and forbidding wrong" by enforcing dress codes, strict separation of men and women, attendance at prayer (salat) five times each day, the ban on alcohol, and other aspects of Sharia (Islamic law). (In the privacy of the home behavior can be far looser, and reports from the Daily Mail and WikiLeaks indicate that the ruling Saudi Royal family applies a different moral code to itself, indulging in parties, drugs and sex.[313])

Women in KSA In public women are required to wear a black

abaya or other black clothing that covers everything under the neck with the exception of their hands and feet, although most women cover their head in respect for their religion. This requirement applies to non Muslim women too and failure to abide can result in police action, particularly in more conservative areas of the country. Women's clothes are often decorated with tribal motifs, coins, sequins, metallic thread, and appliques.

Wahhabi Practices Celebration of other (non-Wahhabi) Islamic holidays, such as the

Muhammad's birthday and the Day of Ashura, (an important holiday for the 10–25% of the population that is Shīʿa Muslim), are tolerated only when celebrated locally and on a small scale.

[ Shia also face systematic discrimination in employment, education, the justice system according to Human Rights Watch.[

Non-Muslim festivals like Christmas and Easter are not tolerated at all, although there are nearly a million Christians as well as Hindus and Buddhists among the foreign workers.

Wahhabism Doctrine Commanding right and forbidding wrong Wahhabism is noted for its policy of "compelling its own followers and

other Muslims strictly to observe the religious duties of Islam, such as the five prayers", and for "enforcement of public morals to a degree not found elsewhere".[

While other Muslims might urge abstention from alcohol, modest dress, and Salat prayer but following the preaching and practice of Abdul Wahhabi that coercion should be used to enforce following of sharia,

The so-called "religious police”) in Saudi Arabia—the one country founded with the help of Wahhabi warriors and whose scholars and pious dominate many aspects of the Kingdom's life. Committee "field officers" enforce strict closing of shops at prayer time, segregation of the sexes, prohibition of the sale and consumption of alcohol, driving of motor vehicles by women, and other social restrictions.

Wahhabism Origin Regions Wahhabism originated in the Najd region, Glasse credits the softening of

some Wahhabi doctrines and practices on the conquest of the Hejaz region "with its more cosmopolitan traditions and the traffic of pilgrims which the new rulers could not afford to alienate”.

The only other country "whose native population is Wahhabi and that adheres to the Wahhabi creed", is the small gulf monarchy of Qatar, whose version of Wahhabism is notably less strict. Unlike Saudi Arabia, Qatar made significant changes in the 1990s. Women are now allowed to drive and travel independently; non-Muslims are permitted to consume alcohol and pork. The country sponsors a film festival, has "world-class art museums", World Cup, and has no religious force that polices public morality. Qatari's attribute its different interpretation of Islam to the absence of an indigenous clerical class and autonomous bureaucracy (religious affairs authority, endowments, Grand Mufti), the fact that Qatari rulers do not derive their legitimacy from such a class.

Wahhabism Beliefs Defining aspects of Wahhabism include: Strict adherence to the athari school of divinity, including the

affirmation of the "clear" (i.e. exoteric or literal) meaning of the Qur'an, and especially the prophetic traditions. Atharis engage in an amodal reading of the Qur'an, as opposed to one engaged in Ta'wil (metaphorical interpretation)

Opposition to the practice of grave veneration and the act of tawassul through other than Allah tawhid into three parts as according to Ibn Taymiyyah, elucidated in the theological mansucript Kitab al Tawhid written by Abdul Wahhab

Wahhabism and Women's rights Senior Wahhabi leaders in Saudi Arabia have determined

that Islam forbids the traveling or working outside the home by a woman without their husband’s.

Wahhabism also forbids the driving of motor vehicles by women. Sexual intercourse out of wedlock may be punished with beheading[230] although sex out of wedlock is permissible with a slave women

Salafism

The Salafi movement is often described as being synonymous with Wahhabism, but Salafists consider the term "Wahhabi" derogatory. At other times, Salafism has been described as a hybrid of Wahhabism and other post-1960s movements.

No need to split hairs ,terms are interchangable

Reform in Wahhabi practices Foreign non-Muslim troops are forbidden in Arabia, except when the king needed

them to confront Saddam Hussein in 1990; gender mixing of men and women is forbidden, and fraternization with non-Muslims is discouraged, but not at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Movie theaters and driving by women are forbidden, except at Aramco.

And more general rules of what is permissible have changed over time. Abdul-Aziz Ibn Saud imposed Wahhabi doctrines and practices "in a progressively gentler form" as his early 20th-century conquests expanded his state into urban areas, especially the Hejab. After vigorous debate Wahhabi religious authorities in Saudi Arabia allowed the use of paper money (in 1951), the abolition of slavery (in 1962), education of females (1964), and use of television (1965). Music, the sound of which once might have led to summary execution, is now commonly heard on Saudi radios. Minarets for mosques and use of funeral markers, which were once forbidden, are now allowed. Prayer attendance which was once enforced by flogging, is no longer. [235]

KSA as a Homeland for Muslims Muslims are allowed to enter KSA to perform Annual Hajj

(pilgrimage) and visas are granted for a few weeks of stay in Jeddah, Mecca and Medina.

Workers are allowed temporary visas and permanent residency and citizenship not permissible.

Muslims cannot opt to go and settle in KSA. It is utopia for 1.6 billion Muslims to think KSA is their

homeland.. A tragic myth!

What Muslims can do ? Study this presentation and reflect and draw your conclusions

regarding whether Saudi practices make sense in this day and age

Don’t feel guilty or be under peer pressure to adhere to these rigid rules if you cannot follow them. Keep an open mind and have broader perspective, hope and unselfishness pays off.

Follow the civil and criminal judiciary laws of the country of residence and encourage public education over madrasas for your children.

Read about other religions, literature and critical articles and other controversial subjects. Education is antidote to radicalism and ignorance is an evil.

Conclusion What Muslims need to ask what they are about, what they

represent , how they want to be perceived, how they want to live in a multicultural predominantly non-Muslim society, What values and belief system they practice and what they teach their children to lead a happy and successful life without worrying about, Is the price too high? Or risk too great and how fellow Muslims will treat them?