Saudi crackdown on Wahhabism
The King of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah issued a royal decree on Monday 3rd February, 2014 that punishes its citizens who fight in conflicts outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with prison sentences ranging from 3 to 20 years in jail after days of protest by its citizens calling on Saudi Clerics to take the war front rather than convincing their kids to fight in Syria.
The decree is aimed at stopping the flow of Saudi fighters going to Syria, as some people believe that fighters could return radicalized and turn their weapons on the monarchy. It appears that many Saudi youths have been encouraged to join the fight in Syria by influential Saudi Clerics who follow the kingdom’s ultraconservative religious Wahhabi doctrine and view the war as a struggle between Syria’s Sunni majority and Shiite-backed minority.
The uprising against Assad has transformed into a regional proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which support opposing sides. Foreign fighters and Islamic extremists have infiltrated the opposition, triggering infighting that has undermined the rebellion.
A key Saudi opposition group, Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights, known in Arabic by its acronym HASEM, said in a statement last week that Saudi rulers are responsible for encouraging extremist ideology in the kingdom in exchange for retaining power and support from the religious establishment. The group said the kingdom secretly tolerates citizens fighting abroad to keep them from carrying out attacks in Saudi Arabia.
Alhaji Mohamed Wusha Conteh
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