Middle East Lecture: Wahhabism and beginning the Islamic Revolution in Iran

[soid]

Finished covering Saudi Arabia with the last topic: Wahhabism, which is the Muslim orthodoxy that developed in the 18-19 century, taking its name from an Arabic scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and used by Saudis till today. 

• Wahhabism emphasizes the unity of the Muslim world, obedience to absolute ruler; discourages excesses in life, set against Sufism. In fact, for the followers "Wahhabi" is an anathema, they call themselves "Muwahhidun" – "unitarians"
• Wahhabism becomes the source of Saudi authoritarian legitimation starting from the 1950-60s; used for fighting leftists with support of the US. It is the weapon against democracy, but the US only needed two things from Saudis: oil and the airbase (Dhahran). 
• Wahhabism is still used by Saudis to legitimize dictatorships, fake democracies like Morocco and Bahrein
• In the 1970s, Afghanistan becomes a place of interaction of various forms of Islam. A place of exchanging ideas, including Wahhabism. Deobandi School merges with Wahhabism in Afghanistan.
• al-Queda is an offshoot of Wahhabism, but is not exactly Wahhabi. It means "base", or rather a "database" – of militants fighting Soviet colonialism – created by "computer people" with decentralized structure across the world.
• Bin Laden was a son of one of the largest real estate magnates in Saudi Arabia, from the capital, Riyadh. In the late 1980s, he disagrees with Saudis over the protection of Kuwait (from Iraq), arguing that holy lands should not be defined by non-muslims (Americans). Somehow this sets him against Americans. Saudi's repressive machine expels him from the country as he becomes an opponent of the regime.
• Prof. warns about the literature on the topic, saying there is a million books written by authors barely understanding the issues, not speaking the language, not understanding intricacies of Islamic thought. There is a whole discipline called "terrorology" with many authors "claiming that they know what they are talking about". So, Prof. says to be aware of it.

Then we shifted to a completely different topic: Islamic revolution in Iran. 

After British-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941, consequential withdrawal of British and later Soviet troops, influence of both in Iran diminishes. Americans step in, with the help of the CIA support a coup d'état in 1953, install a new regime called SAWAK which existed until the revolution in 1979. It was basically a police dictatorship, very repressive, but trying to modernize. In the 1960s the regime starts losing control of various factions: starting with the clerk Ruhollah Khomeini, various leftist movements ("Marxist-Islamist"), somehow that led to the revolution. To be continued...

Comments

[juan_gandhi]

That Iranian revolution was very dramatic. Thousands of people voluntarily lying under the tanks. Sawak trying to brutally suppress anything that breathes. The Shah losing his grip of the country, and then running away. And then those cruel revolutionaries...

[soid]

Yes, it's tragic how revolutionaries fighting against oppressors then become the oppressors. Poor Iranian people - so much struggle on them during the last century. How do you know about this? Was it covered by the Soviet media when the revolution broke out? I can imagine so, since Sawak was pro-American regime.

[juan_gandhi]

Those years I already was not much aware of the lies the Soviet media was spreading/imposing. BBC World Service was on in my kitchen all the time that I was there. It was my only source of news. And no, I would not say it was my source of truth. I was a little bit ironic regarding the BBC style of trashing all former colonies (including the USA).

Also, this helped me learn English. The time in the USSR was dragging very slowly. So I had time, and by 1991 I was the translator every time people from abroad were visiting our company.

[soid]

It's fascinating how Soviet people found their way around the propaganda!