David Commins: evaluation

Transcript context

…How is that then compatible with Wahhabism? Or is it just a contradiction that everyone lives with? Well, it is a contradiction. One of the political achievements of the early 20th-century Saudi leader, Abdulaziz, was to annex Mecca to his kingdom, which was based in Riyadh, and do so in a way that imposed what you might call a qualified Wahhabi regime, because in its original homeland in central Arabia, the Wahhabi clerics purged the entire region as thoroughly as they could, of any religious dissent, that is, of other Sunni Muslims. That was in the 1700s, 1800s. When Abdulaziz annexed Mecca, at the end of 1924, he realized that it was a globally significant annexation and that if he tried to impose a strict Wahhabi regime that purged other Muslim traditions from the holy city, he would alienate Muslims in the rest of the world. So, he did put Wahhabi clerics in charge of religious institutions in Mecca, but he chose clerics who were willing to work with Muslims in other Sunni traditions. He actually had to compromise, you would say, on strict Wahhabi doctrine. The Shiite Muslims in the Eastern Provinces — they’re just tolerated? Or there’s discrimination? What’s their legal status?…

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