The real Wahhab

A new book argues that the founder of Wahhabi Islam was really a tolerant, peace-loving reformer. Some scholars are crying foul.

By John Kearney

August 8, 2004

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SINCE 9/11, THERE HAS been no shortage of calls for an "Islamic reformation" to counter religious extremism in Muslim societies and lift them out of economic and political stagnation. Reform boosters often target Saudi Arabia's state-sponsored creed, known as Wahhabi Islam, claiming that Wahhabism's alleged repression of women, its rigid, literalist readings of the Koran, and its belligerence towards other ... (Full Article: 1573 Words)