Clean energy can help defeat Islamic extremism
By: Apoorva Vishnoi
Tags: Terrorism, Islam, Saudi Arabia, USA, Politics

My dear reader, after reading the title you must be wondering how can cleaner, non-conventional energy help defeat Islamic extremism? It will require some groundwork from my side and some mental gymnastics from your side for you to truly grasp what I mean by it. For this, let us sit in time-machine and take a journey to the past.

Now, there are people who wonder why history is important or necessary? After all it has been a long standing victim of embellishments and lies and half-truths more dangerous than lies. But in my very much biased opinion, history is necessary because it can expand our tunnel vision, our myopic view generated from the affairs as they stand presently. Without history, we err into thinking that things have always been like this and a better future is an unrealistic utopia.

And on studying this very history, one will know of a time when women in (urban) Afghanistan could dress like this:

As opposed to this:

Or when the beaches of Iran looked like this:

Unlike today:

Or of a time when Islamic extremism was not a familiar word for many, either in the West or in the East. Yes, such a time existed! My generation (I am 1995 born) is unfamiliar with such a time but for the most part of 20th century, the defense establishment in the USA would get more triggered by Communist Manifesto than Quran.

It’s important to know the above to build a future where Islamic extremism and terrorism are terms only on the lips of history majors and not security or political experts. This knowledge of the past allows us to deduce the factors responsible for our terror-ridden present.

There are many factors considered responsible for the explosive growth of Islamic terrorism. But today I will focus on only one of those: Saudi-sponsored Wahhabism. Wahhabism is a radical take on Islam courtesy of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in 18th century Saudi Arabia. Its essence is simple: to throw out a millennia of variations and evolutions and innovations in Islam and take it back to Islam as it existed under Prophet Mohammad. Under its strict interpretation by some, not only non-Muslims but even Muslims who don’t agree with their teachings are considered enemies (which constitute almost 95% of people in the world).

But how did this retarded ideology gain so many followers, especially among terrorists? And how did it give birth to that deformed kid known as ISIS/IS/ISIL? Again history comes to our aid. Wahhab obviously didn’t make many friends around him when he started telling people how they were following Islam in a wrong manner. He found an ally in Muhammad bin Saud. You might find the last name familiar. It’s because he is the ancestor of the present day royal family of Saudi (Saud’s) Arabia. An alliance was born in that tent, the kind as ancient as kingship itself where the religion provided legitimacy to the king and the king provided the religious forces with hosts to prey upon, otherwise known as subject. This dual arrangement led to over a century long process resulting in bin-Saud’s descendant Abdulaziz Ibn Saud gaining control over the present day territory of Saudi Arabia. He expressed his gratitude to the benefits reaped from his alliance by making Wahhabism the official religious doctrine.

Saudi Arabia was relatively large but still a poor Arabian country. They would have remained like this had oil not been discovered, to what should be the dismay of peace-loving people everywhere. Since they had more money than could literally count, they decided to invest it in areas they deemed important. They passed science because it was too fancy and “Western” and settled on religion. They started exporting their brand of Islam everywhere. The oil money funded exportation of their Islamist ideology with some help of technology (based on much despised science) to other Muslims around the world. Islamic universities in Indonesia, madrassas in Pakistan, mosques in India etc. all have petrodollars behind them. The hate filled sermons verbally assault everything they deemed un-Islamic. They may claim to be peaceful, but just google Wahhabi sites and see the hatred they spew. But because war of words is boring, they soon moved to physical acts of terrorism.

One would imagine that USA, currently pretending to wage a war on terror, would do something about stopping an ideology which is vehemently anti-USA and anti-West and is the cause behind almost every Islamic terrorist attack. But because the said ideology is being funded by the precious oil, it turns a blind eye to Saudi Arabia’s activities. USA invaded Afghanistan because it sheltered good old Osama, but conveniently forgot the country that created and nurtured him and continues to use his clones to push its agenda (since its army is too ineffective and what better than foreign volunteers fighting its war on foreign shores).

Compare American treatment of Saudi Wahhabism to American treatment of USSR’s communism. While the USA was at war with latter, it did everything to fight, isolate and neutralize its source: USSR. But now when it is at war with the former, it is friends with its source: Saudi Arabia. No wonder USA is losing the fight worldwide.

Some of you may ridicule the comparison but guess which two wars have allowed the USA defense budget to remain so high: Cold War and War on Terror. What ideologies have been the biggest enemies of democracy around the world: Communism and Islamic extremism. And what ideologies have resulted in so many deaths, civil wars and atrocities around the world: Communism and Islamic extremism.

Saudi Arabia would continue to be a blind spot for the USA and its allies, instead of being a social pariah as it should be (for its human rights violation and proxy wars), until this Gulf country doesn’t runs out of oil (which will take a long, long time) or oil stops being such a precious commodity to USA (only possible by development of viable alternatives). The latter being a more likely scenario implies that people like Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has possibly done more to combat source of extremist Islam than any Barack Obama or George Bush. Saudi Arabia is trying to become less oil-dependent, but with the oil gone, USA’s hands will not be tied anymore. The world community can finally bring Saudi Arabia to account for its terrible activities, both against its own citizens and against the citizens of so many other countries once USA’s protection is gone.