The Wahhabi Myth: Dispelling Prevalent Fallacies and the Fictitious Link with Bin Laden

by Haneef James Oliver

"The 'Wahhabi' Myth" is a landmark achievement in clarifying many of the gross inaccuracies and outright lies that have been attributed to the belief of the Salafee Muslims. Although some reporters and Western orientalist scholars have been vigilant enough to rebut these widespread fables, most have fallen headfirst into what one discerning reporter called, "the neo-conservative line that the whole conspiracy against America can be traced back to Wahabism and the government of Saudi Arabia."

Genres: Islam

170 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2004

Reviews

[Ardall Leonardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book clarify the distinction between Wahhabi and Salafi. The media really play significant role on framing Wahhabi as a sect of terrorism. Hence, it also impact how people see the teaching of Salafism. In reality, unfortunately many can be found in people that declare themselves as a Salafee but does not really practice and behave like the way it should. The author also keep reminding the reader about the very basic concept of Islam which is calling for tawheed. It's good start if you are interested to know what's going on with Wahhabi, why and how it gets framed.

[Syed Mubashir · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book clarified my doubts about Salafism and made me a Salafi. Alhumdulillah.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book serves two functions. Firstly it is an attempt to distance the peaceful practitioners of Salafism (it doesn't touch on Salafist jihadis) from Qutubism and Qutubist jihadis like Bin Laden. I learned a decent amount about the distinctions here. Basically Salafism is fundamentalist literalist Islam. Qutbism is like a weird Trotskyite (not literally, but it shares a lot of the features like awakening the sleeping masses and permanent global revolution until global communism/caliphate is achieved) /islamist hybrid. Qutbism also has other strange characteristics like asserting that the period of ignorance has returned, and that almost all self identified muslims are actually phonies. From the info in this book, it seems like Qutbism and Salafism are pretty flippin distant on the spectrum of Islamic ideologies, and that those affiliated with Al Quaieda lean more towards Qutbism.

However the other function of the book is to defend Salafism as the valid form of Islam and religion in general. This is useful because judging a philosophy negatively without sympathetically reading its supporters is bigoted. However, unless literalist Islam complete with theocratic governance is up your alley, Salafism still comes off pretty badly.

Pretty uninterestingly written in my opinion though. It gets 3 stars because I learned things, not because it was beautiful prose.

[Aliabbas · Rating 5 out of 5]

True to its name , this book really clears the misconceptions associated with the terms like "Wahhabi", "Salafi" etc. This book is written by a convert to Islam who has actually lived in salafism coming from western non islamic background and hence is more authoritative on this subject. A must read for all including muslims who themselves are disillusioned with these terms.

[Pavlo Atlas · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was my first step into literature about Islamism. So my opinion is not a formed one. But, definitely, this book is a useful insight to challenge some wrong assumptions that Western media bears about Wahabbism or Salafism. A good critic that, however, becomes quite difficult to read if it is your first approach to the subject and, at the same time, lacks argumentative lines and references to convince you of different statements the author makes and, therefore, it appears to be biased and one-sided. It has to be taken with a pinch of salt. But, beyond that, quite enriching reading.