The Algerian daily Le Soir d'Algérie reports that Saudi imams, the tireless purveyors of Islamist extremism, have been barred from preaching inside the emirate. Furthermore, AP reported that Kuwait is blocking Islamic Web sites that incite violence and that police have seized radical books from mosques. Yet even as Kuwait grasps the nettle, the policy in Europe toward Saudi-funded spreading of extremism remains benign neglect.
Dr. Bernard Lewis, the famous expert on Islam, explained what happened in Germany regarding the choice of Islamic books. Since most of the Muslim community is Turkish, the German authorities naturally turned to the Turks to provide the necessary religious material. But upon learning that they were using official Turkish books, Germany refused and turned to other private Muslim institutions, funded by Saudi Arabia. So, unfortunately, the books now used in German schools are portraying the Wahhabi (extremist Saudi) version of Islam, instead of the much more secular Turkish version. Is that a coincidence then that all of the 12 Turks members of al-Qaida arrested were from Germany and none from Turkey?
In Spain, where the very large Islamic Center of Madrid has been directly financed by Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism is on a vertiginous rise. According to the Spanish daily La Razon of November 24, 2002, Spanish secret services were already very worried then about the increasing radicalization of the Spanish Muslim community. Is it surprising that after the March 11, 2004, train bombings in Madrid, a link was established between a Madrid mosque and the suspected terrorists already charged?
In France, which hosts the largest Muslim community in Europe - estimates vary from 5 to 8 million - the link between radical mosques and terrorism is striking. As Louis Caprioli, the former chief of the DST - the French equivalent to the FBI counterterrorism unit, wisely stated: "there is always a radical imam behind a Muslim terrorist." Indeed, for instance in Venissieux, a suburb of Lyon, the Wahhabi imam Chelali Benchellali since 1991 has been hard at work preaching jihad. It worked: three of the seven French prisoners held in Guantanamo are from Venissieux: one happened to be imam Benchellali's own son.
Also, on November 5, 2002, the DST arrested in Venissieux on terrorism charges two relatives of Nizar Nawar, the suspected mastermind of the terrorist attack against the Djerba (Tunisia) synagogue, which killed 19 people on April 11, 2002. Finally on January 6, 2003, the DST arrested imam Benchellali, his wife, one of his other sons and a Venissieux pharmacist because they were suspected of preparing a major chemical attack in France. On February 16, 2005, the daily Le Parisien, reported that a group of recently arrested Islamists confirmed that Benchellali had installed a chemical lab in his apartment and was on his way to manufacture chemical bombs containing ricin. Also recently three young French Muslims died fighting in Iraq against the Coalition while three others were arrested by American troops in Fallujah. They had something in common: they were all attending the same mosque in Paris and followed the calls for jihad of the imam, who has been since then arrested. According to the mother of one of them, his son was brainwashed and manipulated by an Islamist "guru." She called for French authorities to realize the extent of the danger at hand.
Back in May 2001, the king of Morocco Mohamed VI sternly warned the French Interior minister of the dangers of the influence of Saudi Arabia through the French mosques. Indeed, Saudi Arabia is omnipresent: it financed for instance the very luxurious Institute of the Arab World in Paris, the Lyon mosque and the King Fahd Islamic center of Mantes–la-Jolie.
As for the U.S., the Wahhabi influence is unfortunately much the same as in Europe. An excellent report, released by Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom, points out the dangers of the Saudi government propaganda widely available in some U.S. mosques. It is a "totalitarian ideology of hatred that can incite to violence," and the fact that it is "being mainstreamed within our borders through the efforts of a foreign government, namely Saudi Arabia, demands our urgent attention."
The fact that Kuwait, a Muslim country, decided in one sweeping act to ban all Saudi imams without exceptions to fight terrorism, speaks volumes; it should serve an indicator. As Dore Gold, the author of "Hatred's Kingdom," wrote: "As long as the hatred continues, the terror will go on."
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Olivier Guitta, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a foreign affairs and counter-terrorism consultant, is the founder of the newsletter The Croissant (www.thecroissant.com).