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Starting in the mid-1970s and 1980s, conservative/strict/puritanical interpretations of Sunni Islam favored by the conservative oil-exporting Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, (and to a lesser extent by other Gulf monarchies) have achieved what political scientist Gilles Kepel calls a "preeminent position of strength in the global expression of Islam." The interpretations included not only "Wahhabi" Islam of Saudi Arabia, but Islamist/revivalist Islam,〔 and a so-called "hybrid"〔〔 of the two interpretations. The impetus for the spread of the interpretations through the Muslim world was funding provided by petroleum exports which ballooned following the October 1973 War. One estimate is that during the reign of King Fadh (1982 to 2005), over $75 billion was spent in efforts to spread Wahhabi Islam. The money was used to established 200 Islamic colleges, 210 Islamic centers, 1500 mosques, and 2000 schools for Muslim children in Muslim and non-Muslim majority countries.〔 〕〔According to author Dore Gold this funding was for non-Muslim countries alone. 〕 The schools were fundamentalist in outlook and formed a network "from Sudan to northern Pakistan". The late king also launched a publishing center in Medina that by 2000 had distributed 138 million copies of the Quran (the central religious text of Islam) worldwide. In the 1980s the Kingdom's approximately 70 embassies around the world added religious attaches to their cultural, educational, and military attaches, and hajj visa consular officers. The new attaches' "job was to get new mosques built in their countries and to persuade existing mosques to propagate the ''dawah wahhabiya''". The Saudi Arabian government funds a number of international organizations to spread fundamentalist Islam, including the Muslim World League, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, the International Islamic Relief Organization, and various royal charities such as the Popular Committee for Assisting the Palestinian Muhahedeen.〔led by Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, now minister of defense, who often is touted as a potential future king〕 Supporting da'wah (literally `making an invitation` to Islam) -- proselytizing or preaching of Islam—has been called "a religious requirement" for Saudi rulers that cannot be abandoned "without losing their domestic legitimacy" as protectors and propagators of Islam. While funds from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf have supported the "Wahhabi" interpretation of Islam (sometimes called Petro-Islam), they have also directly or indirectly assisted other strict and conservative interpretations of Sunni Islam such as those of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-e-Islami organizations. Wahhabism and forms of Islamism are said to have formed a "joint venture",〔 which shares a strong "revulsion" against western influences,〔 a belief in strict implementation of injunctions and prohibitions of sharia law,〔 and an opposition to both Shiism and popular Islamic religious practices (the cult of `saints`).〔 Later the two movements are said to have been "fused", or formed "hybrid", particularly as a result of the Afghan jihad of the 1980s against the Soviet Union. This interpretation also included a belief in the importance of jihad, and resulted in the training and equipping of thousands of Muslims to fight against Soviets and their Afghan allies in Afghanistan in the 1980s.〔 (The alliance was not permanent and the Muslim Brotherhood and Osama bin Laden broke with Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. Revivalist groups also disagreed among themselves -- Salafi Jihadi groups differing with the less extreme Muslim Brotherhood, for example.) The funding has been criticized for promoting an intolerant, fanatical form of Islam that allegedly helped to breed terrorism. Critics argue that volunteers mobilized to fight in Afghanistan (such as Osama bin Laden) and "exultant" at their success against the Soviet superpower, went on to fight Jihad against Muslim governments and civilians in other countries. And that conservative Sunni groups such as the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan are attacking and killing not only non-Muslims but fellow Muslims they consider to be apostates, such as Shia and Sufis. ==Background== Although Saudi Arabia had been an oil exporter since 1939, and active leading the conservative opposition among Arab states to Gamal Abdel Nasser's progressive Arab nationalism since at least the 1960s, it was the October 1973 War that greatly enhanced its wealth and stature, and ability to promote conservative Wahhabism. 〔It may also have changed Saudi desire to propagate Wahhabism. 〕 Prior to the 1973 oil embargo, religion throughout the Muslim world was "dominated by national or local traditions rooted in the piety of the common people." Clerics looked to their different schools of fiqh (the four Sunni Madhhabs: Hanafi in the Turkish zones of South Asia, Maliki in Africa, Shafi'i in Southeast Asia, plus Shi'a Ja'fari, and "held Saudi inspired puritanism" (using another school of fiqh, Hanbali) in "great suspicion on account of its sectarian character," according to Gilles Kepel.〔 〕 Wahhabis—or as they preferred to be called Salafis or monotheists—were more strict in some practices than other Muslims—hijab covering not just hair but women's faces, separation of sexes). They also ban practices other Muslims permit, such as music, visiting tombs of saints, conducting of business during salat prayer times.〔(from ''The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists'', by Khaled Abou El Fadl, Harper San Francisco, 2005 , p.160)〕 Critics also complained Wahhabis were too quick to declare other Muslims appostates (takfir). While the 1973 War (also called the Yom Kippur War) was started by Egypt and Syria to take back land won by Israel in 1967, the "real victors" of the war were the Arab "oil-exporting countries", (according to Gilles Kepel), whose embargo against Israel's western allies stopped Israel's counter offensive.〔 The embargo's political success enhanced the prestige of the embargo-ers and the reduction in the global supply of oil sent oil prices soaring (from US$3 per barrel to nearly $12) and with them, oil exporter revenues. This put Muslim oil exporting states in a "clear position of dominance within the Muslim world". The most dominant was Saudi Arabia, the largest exporter by far (see bar chart below). 〔 〕 Saudi Arabians viewed their oil wealth not as an accident of geology or history, but directly connected to their practice of religion—a blessing given them by God, "vindicate them in their separateness from other cultures and religions",〔>〕 but also something to "be solemnly acknowledged and lived up to" with pious behavior, and so "legitimize" its prosperity and buttressing and "otherwise fragile" dynasty.〔 〕 〔Gilles Kepel and Nazih N. Ayubi both use the term Petro-Islam, but others subscribe to this view as well, example: 〕 With its new wealth the rulers of Saudi Arabia sought to replace nationalist movements in the Muslim world with Islam, to bring Islam "to the forefront of the international scene", and to unify Islam worldwide under the "single creed" of Wahhabism, paying particular attention to Muslims who had immigrated to the West (a "special target").〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「International propagation of conservative Sunni Islam」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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