MANIPAL, India, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- The
Shiite branch of Islam is regarded as heresy by followers of Wahhabism, an
Islamic school of thought founded in the 18th century by Abdul Wahhab. Extreme
adherents of this faith routinely visit violence on Shiites, and every one of
its preachers condemns the Shiites as un-Islamic.
However, the 1979 ascendance of Grand Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini to absolute power in Iran meant the capture of one
of the geopolitical pivots of the Shiite world -- the other being Iraq -- by a
thinker whose teachings closely resembled the philosophy of Abdul Wahhab, at
least in tone.
Wahhab's ideas originally had been
designed to counter the influence of Turkish Sufi doctrine over the Arab
Bedouin. The Wahhabis enjoyed the support of the British Empire and its
successor in international reach, the United States, initially because this
alienation from Turkish influence suited their interests.
This backing began to be withdrawn only
after Sept. 11, 2001. Nearly nine years after that event, the prying away of
Wahhabis from the state structures of key Muslim-majority states has been at
best partial, and usually no more than cosmetic. Wahhabism continues to
dominate the world of Muslim religious schools and sites by the marginalization
of clerics and scholars who subscribe to a moderate -- if not Sufi --
worldview.
Nowhere has this process secured deeper
roots than in Pakistan.
