Go to Here's A Thought: One Thing A Penny Still Buys
- Add a comment
- Go to Levi Strauss, The Bush Administration, and The Muslim Brotherhood
And so, SlyCy, the House of Saud became dominant, exhorbitantly wealthy and
powerful. Still controlling Saudi Arabia, they are also responsible for cultivating early Wahhabism, the current reigning ultra-fundamentalism version of Islam that rules that nation (strangely enough, the House of Saud is considered apart from this, which is why bin Laden and company oppose their rule). Saudi Arabia is also primarily responsible for the dissemination of the Wahhabist doctrine throughout the Muslim world and on into the West. Their wealth has provided a secure avenue for setting up schools and promoting extreme Islam, basically in accordance with the ideals of the Muslim Brotherhood, HAMAS, al Qaeda and that ilk.
posted by
saul_relative
on February 19, 2006 at 7:47 AM
| link to this | reply
And scarier, katray, is that patriotism and nationalism and militarism,
three of the causes that precipitated the huge conflagrations of the first half of the 20th century, are also alive and well, not only in developing nations, but in (gasp!) the United States as well. Check out the military build-up in Asia, all the little nations screaming for independence, and the latest American push to return to a stronger, more patriotic time of perceived dominance. All it took was an assassination to begin World War I, which inevitably led to WWII. The world has become a tenderbox again, its volatility heightened by religious extremism, and we have a group of swaggering morons for leaders in many of these countries: Iran, North Korea, the United States, Venezuela. And not one of them has opened a fucking history book so as not to repeat the same sad story.
posted by
saul_relative
on February 19, 2006 at 7:40 AM
| link to this | reply
Saudi Arabia didn't exist until 1932 when a
clan of brothers took up the cause of neo-Islam just as you said. A few years later, they found they were sitting on the biggest pool of oil in the world.
posted by
SlyCy
on February 19, 2006 at 7:16 AM
| link to this | reply
Isn't it fascinating (and frightening) how most of the world believed fascism was defeated with the fall of Hitler. Instead the strains that had spread continue to thrive and deceive. Good post Saul; Thank you.
posted by
Katray2
on February 18, 2006 at 5:31 AM
| link to this | reply