Double standards mar the fight against global jihad

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/03/double-standards-mar-fight-against-global-jihad

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The heart-rending death of Steven Sotloff brings into sharp focus Owen Jones's valiant exposure (1 September) of facilitators of global jihad, but does not delve deeply into the genesis of it. Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab's doctrine, the cornerstone of Saudi state policy, advocates violent jihad as the sixth pillar of Islam, a duty on the believers on a par with the traditional five fundamentals.

The flood of petrodollars flowing into Saudi coffers, following the tripling of oil prices in 1973 and since, has enabled the setting up of the world's largest printing plant in Medina, which has become the leading source of supply of the Holy Qur'an and its Wahhabi doctrinal translation in thousands of vernaculars to mosques worldwide, usually free. Most mosques in Britain remain in the hands of those whose patrons reside in the sheikhdoms Owen Jones names, and where the Friday lessons and sermons preached are based on these Wahhabi-interpreted versions.

Ending support of Saudi Arabia by our government may be the first step to check the jihadi culture taking hold of some British Muslims, but a more effective course might be to make our mosques de-link from the ideology of Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab.Mohammad Abdul QaviLondon

• David Cameron has been quick to denounce the murder by beheading of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff by Islamic State fighters (Report, 3 September). He described the former as "shocking and depraved" and the latter as "disgusting and despicable". Yet on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia announced that it had beheaded four men by sword following their conviction for smuggling hashish pills into the country. Saudi Arabia has executed 45 people this year – 30 in the past four weeks. Surely this is no less "shocking and depraved" or "disgusting and despicable" than the murder of Foley and Sotloff? Does Cameron's silence have anything to do with the fact that under his premiership export licences worth £3.8bn have been approved for British arms companies' sales to Saudi Arabia? Does Cameron overlook Saudi Arabia's beheadings because it bought £1.6bn of UK arms in 2013 and has signed a deal a deal worth well over £4bn for 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets from BAE this year? Sasha SimicLondon

• The killing of another American journalist by Islamic State terrorists and other atrocities contradict Islam and the way the prophet Muhammad – who was married to a Christian – treated people of other faiths. I have not met one Muslim who supports IS. Killing western journalists seems to get more publicity than the killing of other journalists in Iraq by US bombing, or the killing of Palestinian journalists by Israel. IS is a split-off al-Qaida which would not have existed without the CIA training and arming of Bin Laden and his fanatics in Afghanistan in the 1980s.Mohammed SamaanaBelfast

• Has the PM thought of asking the Saudis to do something with all those state-of-the-art military aircraft we have been supplying to them over the last 30 years? If not, perhaps he might also consider asking them – but in the nicest possible way, so as not to destabilise our arms industry or our oil supplies – to go easy on their funding of madrassas, faith schools etc, which do rather encourage the young to think that separatism, jihad, patriarchy etc is rather a good idea.Charles AllenAuthor, God's Terrorists: the Wahhabi cult and the roots of modern jihad