Dare America look into it? The faith of Osama bin Laden. A brief account of the Wahhabist version of the Muslim religion professed by the Saudi exile, now living somewhere in Afghanistan.

From earlier issues

Insight1: Background to Palestine/Israel, Iraq, Syria; Freedom of Information in Britain; the Grandma Spy; notes fom the official archives

Insight2: Dr V G Bull and the Iraqi gun, with acknowledgements to VOMIT (Victims of Masonic Ill Treatment)

Insight3: The Road to Kabul: Summary of India Office document on the background to the first Afghan War

The Saudi creed of Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Laden has espoused a good many causes since he took up residence in North Africa and then in Afghanistan as an American-backed weapon in the war against Communism and began to use his vast wealth and his mastery of disguise in a relentless bout of holy war and international iconoclasm.

But his ideals, the power house of his faith, reside in Wahhabism, the creed of the al-Saud, ruling house of Arabia.

It is a scenario that comes naturally to an Islamic creed that gave the Saudi family of desert Arabia its early impetus and authority, and very nearly brought it to ruin in the early part of the present century.

It all began in the early 18th century, in days when virtually all the Middle East was part of the Ottoman or Osmanli empire of the Turks.

In 1724, the founder of the ruling Arabian dynasty, Saud ibn Muhammad al Misran, died leaving four sons. He was succeeded by Muhammad bin Saud al Misran who was a convert to an ascetic, puritanical version of the faith preached by a charismatic spiritual leader Muhammad ibn Suleiman ibn Abdal Wahhab. Bin Wahhab wandered through the Arab lands making converts among desert people in much the way that the English non-conformist John Wesley proselytised and sought converts among the rural poor. Remarkably, the two men were born in the same year, 1703.

By the time of Abdal Wahhab's death in 1765, almost the whole of the Arabian peninsula had come under his spell. As the faith spread, so did the power of the House of Saud. But animosity spread too, especially in the Shi'a strongholds of Iraq and Iran. The next Prince to occupy the Saudi throne was Abdal Aziz bin Muhammad, and in 1801 he led an attack on the holy shrine of the Shi'a saint Husain at Karbala in Iraq. At that time the Saudi capital was Dariya, and in 1803 Abdal Aziz was murdered in retaliation by a Shi'a while praying in its mosque.

Under Saud ibn Abdal Aziz, Wahhabi power reached its zenith and the holy cities of Mecca and Madina were conquered, an act that brought a devastating Turco-Egyptian invasion in its wake. In 1818 Dariya was destroyed. Abdallah the new Amir was taken to Constantinople and beheaded. The capital of the Sauds moved to Riyadh in 1824 under Faisal the Great.

It was not until the accession of Faisal's grandson, Abdal Aziz bin Abdurrahman, in the 20th century that Wahhabism received its greatest fillip, however.

The authority of the Saud dynasty had declined and the young Abdal Aziz, driven from Riyadh by the Turks, had been protected in exile by the Shaikh of Kuwait, Mubarak al Sabah. Fearful of the Shaikh, described by Britain's Foreign Secretary Lord Lansdowne as a 'savage' and by Lovat Fraser the editor of The Times of India as 'the Richelieu of Arabia', and watchful of the rising power of the young Abdal Aziz, Britain put its most able agent in the Middle East, Captain William Henry Irvine Shakespear, in the political hot seat of Kuwait.

Shakespear soon made it plain that he thought his own government's policy in the region was folly, based as it was on support for Turkey and opposition to any concert with Ibn Saud who was the natural leader of the Arabs. Unfortunately for Britain, Shakespear was sent into the desert in the first days of the First World War to explain to the Arab leader that Britain wished to reverse its old policy and to support the Arab cause. While the two men were together, the Saud army was attacked by its old enemy the pro-Turkish al-Rashid of Hail in Northern Arabia. Shakespear was killed in battle, fighting almost alone until the field gun he had taken over jammed and he was cut down by the enemy. His death marked the end of Britain's involvement in Arabia until after the war. Kitchener turned to the Sharif of Mecca, a Turkish servant, for a disastrous wartime alliance, and thus began the 'Lawrence of Arabia' episode.

But just before his death, Shakespear had discovered a desert force established at al-Artawiya in Central Arabia by Faisal al-Duwish, a friend with whom he had spent much time in the desert. 'Fat Faisal' Shakespear called him.The militant new army was known as the Ikhwan, the Brotherhood.

Thus was born the idealistic army of central Arabia, Najd as it was called in those days, that would carry forward  the 'true faith' into the late 20th and early 21st centuries; that would suffer humiliating defeat at the hands of its warrior sovereign and Britain's airforce, and eventually  find renewal of its valour, its acerbic, austere version of the Moslem religion, its resentments and its single-minded determination, in the mountains and valleys of Afghanistan. They  called themselves the Taliban, and were enthusiastically supported by America in their fight with the godless Soviets. Thus was born the militant force that would become America's nemesis.   

Al-Duwish led Ibn Saud's army to victory over his traditional enemies, the al-Rashid of Hail and the Sharif of Mecca, whose sons had been promised by Britain nearly the whole of the Arabian Peninsula, including Iraq and Syria, excepting only Palestine and the Lebanon. The Ikhwan became the most feared fighters in Arabia and went on to become so dominant that Ibn Saud, now recognised by Britain and the great powers as the King of Arabia, began to fear for his throne.

Bin Saud had refused to allow Duwish's fighters to pillage the holy places of Mecca and the Prophet's City or to desecrate the shrines. To them, however, idolatry was the worst of sins and their king's opposition to their plans provoked a terrible backlash. A vicious war ensued among the tribes of eastern Arabia and there was great loss of life in the desert conflict. The fanaticism and ferocity of the Ikhwan, made it a force feared by nations and tribes alike.

From 1927 until 1931 there was chaos in much of the Middle East, involving Ibn Saud and al-Duwish, the Shaikh of Kuwait, British-mandated Iraq, the RAF and even commercial airlines. When Imperial Airways asked for permission to use the eastern seaboard of Arabia on its India route, the Ikhwan refused; and Ibn Saud was powerless to intervene. Hatred of technology and invention went hand in hand with religious zeal. In 1931, the rebel force was enticed into Kuwait and bombed into submission by the RAF. Bin Duwish and his fellow tribal leaders were handed over to Ibn Saud who imprisoned them. The House of Saud and Britain would forever rankle at the  the heart of the  fiercest and most courageous fighting force the desert had seen since the days of the Arab Conquest. 

Faisal al Duwish died in captivity on 3 October 1931.