The term "Wahhabi" has been deployed by external observers as a pejorative epithet to label a wide range of religious, social and political movements across theMuslim World, ever since the 18th century.[1] Initially, the term "Wahhabiyya" was employed by the political opponents of the religious reform movement initiated byMuhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (d. 1792 C.E/ 1206 A.H) in theArabian Peninsula and continued by his successors. The term was derived from his father's name, 'Abd al-Wahhab and widely employed by rivals to denounce his movement. Meanwhile, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab and his disciples rejected the terminology and identified themselves as "Muwahhidun". Then, the term began to be used by the followers of the movement on the 20th century[2][3][4]
The term would later be popularised by theBritish empire to label numerous Islamic religious movements, of varying backgrounds, which they opposed. As early as the 19th century, the British empire had popularised the notion of an imaginary Wahhabi conspiracy which was portrayed as an imminent danger to Imperial security.[5] Throughout these years, the term "Wahhabi" have been used as anIslamophobic as well as asectarian epithet.[6][7][8] Various scholars have described the epithet as part of a "Rhetoric of Fear" to suppress alternate social, political and religious voices by ruling authorities.[9]
Severalauthoritarian states, particularly in thepost-Soviet sphere, have incorporated the "Wahhabi" epithet into theiranti-Islam,nativist propaganda discourses; depicting dissidents of Muslim background as subversives and "traitors" to the nation. During thepost-9/11 era, the strategy was amplified by various dictators, who launch crackdowns upon public expressions of religiosity by portraying such campaigns as a defense of modern "Enlightenment" ideas. Victims of these campaigns include practising Muslims who pray inmosques, have beards or assist Islamic educational institutions; who are portrayed by theauthoritarian regimes as opponents of modernity and dehumanised in state propaganda throughanti-Muslim stereotypes. The label has also been used as a "catch-all phrase" to censor Muslim intellectuals, activists and political opponents through various repressive measures, such asforced disappearances andarbitrary detentions, by characterizing such liquidations as attempts to enforce "stability" and "national unity".[10][11][12]
Although the word Wahabi is a misnomer.. The insistence of the English as also some Indian writers on the use of this appellation seems to be deliberate and actuated by ulterior motives... In the eyes of theBritish Government the word Wahabi was synonymous with 'traitor' and 'rebel'. Thus, by describing the followers ofSayyid Ahmad as Wahabis, the contemporary Government officers aimed at killing two birds with one stone-branding them as rebels in the eyes of the higher circles of the government and as 'extremists' and 'desecrators of shrines' in the eyes of the general Muslims. The epithet became a term of religio-political abuse.
During the colonial era, various European travellers began using the term "Wahhabi" to denote a wide swathe ofIslamic reform and political movements they witnessed across the Muslim World.[14]Hanafi scholarFazl-e Haq Khairabadi, the fiercest opponent ofShah Ismail Dehlvi (d. 1831 C.E/ 1246 A.H) was the first major figure inSouth Asia to charge the socio-politicalJihad movement ofSayyid Ahmad Shahid (d. 1831 C.E/ 1246 A.H) and Shah Ismail with "Wahhabism". Noting the sharedHejazi teachers of Islamic reformerShah Waliullah Dehlawi (d. 1762 C.E/ 1176 A.H) – the grandfather of Shah Ismail – withMuhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab; thecolonial administration readily charged Shah Waliullah's followers with "Wahhabism". After Sayyid Ahmad's death, his followers were labelled as "Wahhabis", accusing them ofpan-Islamic rebellions and were persecuted in "The Great Wahhabi Trials" by the British. Meanwhile, the disciples of Sayyid Ahmad rejected this term and identified themselves asAhl-i Hadith (Followers of Hadith),Tariqa-i Muhammadiyya (Path of Muhammad), etc. Prominent figures of theAhl-i Hadith andDeobandi schools persecuted by the British includeSiddiq Hasan Khan (d. 1890 C.E/ 1307 A.H),Muhammad Qasim Nanautvi (d. 1880 C.E/ 1297 A.H) etc.[15][16][17] Decrying the chaotic state of affairs, prominent 19th century Indianmodernist scholarSir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817–1898) stated:
"he who follows thesunnat [the teachings and practices ofMuhammad] is called a Wahhabi and he who practicesbidat [heretical innovations] is calledwali [holy man]"[18]
Islamic scholar Siddiq Hassan Khan would publicly challenge the rationale behind the British usage of the term "Wahhabi" and would compile several treatises rebuking its usage.[19][20] Another influentialAhl-i Hadith scholarMuhammad Husayn Batalwi (d. 1920 C.E/ 1338 A.H) launched a popular protest campaign against theBritish administration during the 1880s to ban the official usage of the word "Wahhabi". In 1887, thePunjab provincial administration acceded to the campaign demands and by 1889, the movement was successful in procuring its demands throughout all theBritish Indian Provinces. Although the term "Wahhabi" would be censured in official documents, its usage continues in intra-religious discourse to the present day. Very often theAhl-i Hadith, Deobandi and modernist movements were subjected toTakfir (excommunication) by rival sects; under the charge of "Wahhabism".[21]
During theSoviet era, religious freedoms of Muslims were suppressed by the Soviet state through variousanti-religious campaigns, which were part of itsMarxist-Leninist social programme.State atheist propaganda stirred upIslamophobic hysteria topersecute Muslims by regularly alleging the existence ofpan-Islamist plots to overthrow thecommunist order through underground activities. The terms "Sufism" and "fanatic" were deployed as the boogeyman inSoviet propaganda while implementing the Sovietanti-Islam campaigns, particularly during theera of stagnation. Anti-"Wahhabi" discourse ofKGB had appeared as early as 1970s, in co-ordination with the Soviet approved clerics ofSADUM, repressing many indigenous Sufi reformers and political dissidents.Saudi-Soviet relations were poor, and theKremlin had regarded Saudi government as "reactionary". However, during theperestroika period, a significant shift emerged in the propaganda depictions. Replacing "Sufi" & "fanatic",KGB began directly borrowing theBritish colonial-era discourse on "Wahhabism" and Western terminology on "fundamentalism" respectively; to stereotype an alleged phenomenon labelled in state propaganda as "Islamic menace".Anti-Islam stereotypes of the cultures ofMuslim countries were regularly featured inSoviet media throughout the 1980s, which discouraged Muslims living within Soviet Union from having religious contacts with the Muslim World.[22][23]
The use of “Wahhabi” for people within the formerSoviet Union increased as the old order crumbled but people who had achieved a privileged position under it wanted to preserve their advantages. Among the early popularizers of the term were men who had comprised the “official clergy” of Islam (that is, the small proportion of religious functionaries who were allowed to operate legally under the control of administrative bodies subject to the Soviet regime) and who largely remained in office in thepost-Soviet era. They found “Wahhabi” a convenient label to denigrate anyone who criticized them. The process began even before thedemise of the Soviet Union. For example, a late-Soviet-era official, U.A. Rustamov, who oversawUzbekistan for theCouncil on Religious Affairs of theUSSR’s Council of Ministers applied the term to people who faulted the “official clergy” for caring too little about the meaning of religious ceremonies toMuslims.
In political, as well as religious matters, any Muslim who challenges the status quo is at risk of being labeled a Wahhabi. This is how the KGB and its post-Soviet successors have used the term. In fact, theKGB may have played a large role in promoting its use.
By 1990s, inpost-SovietRussian media, the label "Wahhabi" had become the most common term to refer to the erstwhile Soviet notions of so-called "Islamic Menace"; while "Sufism" was portrayed by the new government as a "moderate" force that countered the alleged "radicalism" of Muslim dissidents. Despite the improvement ofRussia–Saudi Arabia relations, conspiratorial rhetoric linkingpan-Islamists in Central Asia and Caucasus with Saudi Arabia continued to persist. FormerCPSU elites as well asRussianultra-nationalists regularly used the label to stir up anti-Muslim hysteria against the revival of Islamic religiosity inCentral Asia,Caucasus and various regions of Russian Federation.[25]
Russian government also deployed the epithet to attack political opponents and independence movements in Muslim-majority regions ofChechnya,Dagestan,Tatarstan, etc.[26][27] TheBBC News reported in 2001:
"The term "Wahhabi" is often used very freely. TheRussian media, for example, use it as a term of abuse for Muslim activists inCentral Asia and the Caucasus, as well as in Russia itself.."[28]
In contemporaryRussia, the term "Wahhabism" is often used to denote any manifestation of what the government depicts as "non-traditional" forms of Islam. Some Russian policymakers characterise "Wahhabism" as a "sectarian heresy" that is alien toIslam in Russia. Other Russian intellectuals adopted an approach of differentiating between theWahhabi movement ofSaudi Arabia, which was characterised as "traditional", while its manifestation in foreign countries began to be termed "non-traditional". The latter approach came to be prescribed in the official Russian religious policy. In various provinces, "Wahhabism" would be banned by law.[29] Revealing the government policy, Russian rulerVladimir Putin stated in 2008: "Wahhabism in its original form is a normal tendency within Islam and there is nothing terrible in it. But there are extremist tendencies within Wahhabism itself"[30]
Scholars have compared government fabrications of "Wahhabi" conspiracies to theanti-semitic tropes propagated during the era ofImperial Russia.[31] Various Russian academics have challenged the usage of the term as a "catch-all phrase" to characterize trends that depart from "normative Islam" and warn of the disfiguring inferences of such an approach. These include ProfessorVitaly Naumkin, Director of Islamic Studies Centre at theRussian Academy of Sciences, and author Aleksei Malashenko, who assert that:[32]
AcrossCentral Asia, authoritarian governments conceptualise "Wahhabism" to label variousIslamic revivalist, social and political opposition movements and group them alongsidemilitant Islamists. The political classes widely deploy the usage of the term "Wahhabism" to suppress any unauthorised religious activity. As a result,Sufi reformers, modernist intellectuals and various political activists have been targeted under the charge of "Wahhabism". Oftentimes, Iran-inspiredshi'ite activists are also labelled "Wahhabi". The official political discourse borrows tags like "fundamentalist", "Wahhabi", etc. to denote what the government considers to be the "wrong type of Islam". Numerous arbitrary arrests, detentions,torture and other repressive measures are meted out to those charged with these labels. In 1998,loudspeakers in Uzbek Mosques were banned, alleging that it was a "Wahhabi" practice.[34][35][36]
Russian media assertions have portrayed a spectre of "Wahhabi revolutions" in Central Asia backed by pan-Islamic organizations, supposedly assisted financially by anonymous religious charities from the Gulf, as an existential threat to the stability ofpost-Soviet order. Central Asian autocrats have eagerly embraced such narratives, and deploy them to launch crackdowns on revival of Islamic religiosity and arrest various dissidents.Modernist intellectuals critical of ruling governments have been routinely targeted by state media, charging them with "Wahhabi" sympathies. During theTajik civil war, government propaganda andRussian mass media deployed the canard fervently against theUnited Tajik Opposition, a diverse coalition of democrats, Islamists and nationalists, portraying them as a threat to the post-Soviet order. In 1997, formerKyrgyz PMFelix Kulov accusedIran of supporting "Wahhabi emissaries" all across Central Asia, althoughKhomeinist ideology consideredWahhabis ofArabia to be "heretics".[37][38]
Uzbekistan'spost-communist autocrat Karimov was a major proponent of the boogeyman theory, evoking the existence of what he described as a "Wahhabi menace" through state propaganda and in meetings with other foreign officials. Several anti-religious campaigns has been launched by the Uzbek government in the name of combating "Wahhabism"; through which numerous individuals charged with "treason" and "subversion" get arrested and tortured.[39][40]
Describing the repressive nature of these campaigns, aHuman Rights Watch report stated:
a government policy of intolerance toward what it perceives as the primary threat to state stability – Muslims whom the government generally refers to as "Wahhabis" – makes a travesty of the government's assertion that the stability born of repression is necessary. … The human rights abuses committed during a crackdown in the Farghona Valley, an Islamic stronghold, that began intensively in early December 1997 are a natural outgrowth of the government's unchecked repression of what can loosely be referred to as "independent" Muslims … Most victims appear to have been practicing Muslims whom the government and local authorities commonly refer to as "Wahhabis." Police were able to identify these men because.. they were known in their neighborhood to attend mosques.., or to support an Islamic school, or to wear a beard, often considered a sign of piety.. several local businessmen with no apparent affiliation with Islam were detained under threat of serious criminal charges in order to extort ransom money from their relatives.. the government made it plain that it was looking for "Wahhabis," explicitly defining the link between government repression and intolerance toward individuals of a certain religious faith... Human Rights Watch has received numerous reports.. of police and security agents forcing individuals to shave off their beard
— HRW report on 1997–98 anti-"Wahhabi" crackdowns of Uzbek government inFergana Valley,[41]
The curriculum of seminaries controlled byKhomeinists in Iran are known for theirsectarian attacks againstSunni Islam, and clerics of these seminaries often portray Sunnis as "Wahhabis" in their rhetoric. TheSahaba (companions of the Prophet) and other revered figures in Sunni history likeAbu Hanifa,Abd al-Qadir Jilani, etc. are regularly slandered as "Wahhabis" in these seminaries.[42]
Western usage of the term of "Wahhabism" to describe religious culture of the Saudi Arabian society has been officially rejected by the Saudi government. During a 2008 conversation withSaudi Arabian KingSalman ibn 'Abd al-Aziz (then governor ofRiyadh Province),Egyptian-American scientistAhmed Zewail discussed the usage of "Wahhabism" by segments of Western media. King Salman replied:
"there is no such thing as Wahhabism. They attack us using this term. We areSunni Muslims who respect the four schools of thought. We follow Islam's Prophet (Muhammad, peace be upon him), and not anyone else.... ImamMuhammad bin Abdel-Wahab was a prominent jurist and a man of knowledge, but he did not introduce anything new. The first Saudi state did not establish a new school of thought... The Islamic thought, which rules in Saudi Arabia, stands against extremism.... We have grown tired of being described as Wahhabis. This is incorrect and unacceptable."[43]
In an interview given to American journalistJeffrey Goldberg in 2018, Saudi Arabian Crown PrinceMohammed bin Salman denied the existence of "Wahhabism" in his country and asserted that the Western usage of the term itself has been amisnomer. Stating that the terminology itself is indefinable, Mohammed bin Salman said: "When people speak of Wahhabism, they don’t know exactly what they are talking about."[44]
In theWestern world, before the 2000s, the term "Wahhabism" was mainly used in academic, scholarly circles in the context ofIbn 'Abd al-Wahhab'sMuwahhidun movement and its historical evolution in theArabian Peninsula. During thepost-9/11 era, the term came to be used for a wide range ofIslamist movements inWestern media depictions.[45]American propaganda constantly depicted Taliban as a "Wahhabi" organization during itswar in Afghanistan, despite Taliban belonging to theDeobandi tradition, a scholarly movement that emerged inIndian subcontinent during the 19th century and opposedBritish colonial rule.[46][47]
Several Western academics have strongly criticized these media depictions and stereotypes, asserting that such inaccurate portrayals have rendered the usage of term indefinable and meaningless. Blanket depictions made by someWestern feminists who conflate misogynist and conservative socio-moral customs across theArab World with "Wahhabism" have also been challenged by various scholars; noting that legal writings of Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab revealed concern for female welfare and safeguarding their rights.[48][49] The definition of "Wahhabism" itself has been a contested category in Western usage, with various journalists, authors, media outlets, politicians, religious leaders, etc. attaching contradictory meanings to it. Some scholars have asserted that the term itself has lost its "objective reality" in modern Westernlinguistics; due to the phenomenon of it being deployed in a wide variety of ways in different contexts and it being understood alternatively by various sections of the society, very often in stark contradiction with each other.[50]
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