Saudis Have Lost the Right to Take Sunni Leadership

Governments that secretly fund intolerant extremists to harm opponents lose credibility in the international community and with their own citizens. In a globalized world, such financing connections are transparent, and the international community must devote scarce resources to battle groups with bizarre goals, like Al Qaeda or the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Such extremist groups are often not satisfied and lash back to attack their funders. Writing for the Financial Times, David Gardner points to Saudi Arabia for financing Wahhabi-style mosques and schools around the globe, an effort to appease its own hardline clerics, but shifting Muslim culture away from moderate Turkic Sufi Islam to radical, ignorant bigotry that lauds intolerant jihad. “Saudi Arabia not only exports oil, but tanker-loads of quasi-totalitarian religious dogma and pipelines of jihadi volunteers, even as it struggles to insulate itself from the blowback,” Gardner explains. Saudi intolerance does not suit a small and connected globe. A kingdom in transition could protect its own system of governance and reputation in the volatile Middle East by encouraging tolerance for beliefs and stopping the flow of funds to radicals. – YaleGlobal