Editing Islamism (section)

===State-sponsorship===
====Saudi Arabia====
{{See also|International propagation of conservative Sunni Islam}}

Starting in the mid-1970s the Islamic resurgence was funded by an abundance of money from Saudi Arabian oil exports.<ref>Kepel, Gilles, ''Jihad: on the Trail of Political Islam'', Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, (2002), pp. 69–75</ref> The tens of billions of dollars in "[[petro-Islam]]" largesse obtained from the recently heightened price of oil funded an estimated "90% of the expenses of the entire faith."<ref>Dawood al-Shirian, 'What Is Saudi Arabia Going to Do?' ''Al-Hayat'', 19 May 2003</ref>

Throughout the Muslim world, religious institutions for people both young and old, from children's [[madrasah|madrassas]] to high-level scholarships received Saudi funding,<ref>Abou al Fadl, Khaled, ''The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists'', HarperSanFrancisco, 2005, pp. 48–64</ref>
"books, scholarships, fellowships, and mosques" (for example, "more than 1500 mosques were built and paid for with money obtained from public Saudi funds over the last 50 years"),<ref>Kepel, Gilles, ''Jihad: on the Trail of Political Islam'', Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, (2002), p. 72</ref> along with training in the Kingdom for the preachers and teachers who went on to teach and work at these universities, schools, mosques, etc.<ref>Nasr, Vali, ''The Shia Revival'', Norton, (2006), p. 155</ref>

The funding was also used to reward journalists and academics who followed the Saudis' strict interpretation of Islam; and satellite campuses were built around Egypt for [[Al-Azhar University]], the world's oldest and most influential Islamic university.<ref>Murphy, Caryle, ''Passion for Islam'', (2002) p. 32</ref>

The interpretation of Islam promoted by this funding was the strict, conservative Saudi-based [[Wahhabism]] or [[Salafism]]. In its harshest form it preached that Muslims should not only "always oppose" infidels "in every way," but "hate them for their religion ... for Allah's sake," that democracy "is responsible for all the horrible wars of the 20th century," that [[Shia]] and other non-Wahhabi Muslims were [[Apostasy in Islam|infidels]], etc.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/special-reports/saudi-publications-hate-ideology-invade-american-mosques |title=Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505190440/https://freedomhouse.org/report/special-reports/saudi-publications-hate-ideology-invade-american-mosques |archive-date=5 May 2019 |date=January 2006}}</ref> While this effort has by no means converted all, or even most Muslims to the Wahhabist interpretation of Islam, it has done much to overwhelm more moderate local interpretations, and has set the Saudi-interpretation of Islam as the "gold standard" of religion in minds of some or many Muslims.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-25472708_ITM |title=An interview with Minister Mentor of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew |publisher=Accessmylibrary.com |date=24 September 2004 |access-date=21 April 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090713151408/http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-25472708_ITM |archive-date=13 July 2009 }}</ref>

====Qatar====
{{Further|Muslim Brotherhood}}

Though the much smaller Qatar could not provide the same level of funding as Saudi Arabia, it was also a petroleum exporter and also sponsored Islamist groups. Qatar backed the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt even after the [[2013 Egyptian coup d'état|2013 overthrow of the MB regime of Mohamed Morsi]], with Qatar ruler Sheikh [[Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani]] denouncing the coup.<ref name="Islam Hassan">{{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/12696782|title=GCC's 2014 Crisis: Causes, Issues and Solutions|journal=Gulf Cooperation Council's Challenges and Prospects|author=Islam Hassan|date=31 March 2015|publisher=Al Jazeera Research Center|access-date=4 June 2015|archive-date=4 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904020157/http://www.academia.edu/12696782/GCCs_2014_Crisis_Causes_Issues_and_Solutions|url-status=live}}</ref> In June 2016, [[Mohamed Morsi]] was sentenced to life for passing state secrets to Qatar.<ref>{{cite news|title=Mohammed Morsi: Egypt's former president given life in spying case|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36567761|access-date=19 June 2016|publisher=BBC News|date=18 June 2016|archive-date=30 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180830041331/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36567761|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Hendawi|first1=Hamza|title=Egyptian court sentences 2 Al-Jazeera employees to death|url=https://apnews.com/74b1debcd2b24a9db4d16868a8116d32|access-date=30 September 2017|work=Associated Press News|date=18 June 2016|archive-date=30 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930181320/http://www.apnewsarchive.com/2016/Egyptian_court_sentences_2_Al-Jazeera_employees_to_death/id-74b1debcd2b24a9db4d16868a8116d32|url-status=live}}</ref>

Qatar has also backed Islamist factions in Libya, Syria and Yemen.
In Libya, Qatar supported Islamists with tens of millions of dollars in aid, military training and "more than 20,000 tons of weapons", both before and after the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://intpolicydigest.org/2015/12/13/uae-qatar-wage-proxy-war-libya/|title=The UAE and Qatar Wage a Proxy War in Libya|date=13 December 2015|website=International Policy Digest|access-date=9 June 2016|archive-date=1 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701165508/http://intpolicydigest.org/2015/12/13/uae-qatar-wage-proxy-war-libya/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204002304576627000922764650|title=Tiny Kingdom's Huge Role in Libya Draws Concern|last1=Dagher|first1=Sam|date=17 October 2011|last2=Tripoli|first2=Charles Levinson in|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|issn=0099-9660|last3=Doha|first3=Margaret Coker in|access-date=9 June 2016|archive-date=18 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818023842/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204002304576627000922764650|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/qatar/11110931/How-Qatar-is-funding-the-rise-of-Islamist-extremists.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/qatar/11110931/How-Qatar-is-funding-the-rise-of-Islamist-extremists.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=How Qatar is funding the rise of Islamist extremists|last=Spencer|first=David Blair and Richard|website=Telegraph|date=20 September 2014 |access-date=9 June 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Hamas, in Palestine, has received considerable financial support as well as diplomatic help.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/119705/why-does-qatar-support-known-terrorists|title=Qatar Is a U.S. Ally. They Also Knowingly Abet Terrorism. What's Going On?|last=Boghardt|first=Lori Plotkin|date=6 October 2014|magazine=New Republic|access-date=9 June 2016|archive-date=14 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914045206/https://newrepublic.com/article/119705/why-does-qatar-support-known-terrorists|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":3"/><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/15/israel-lied-about-isil-soldiers-entering-gaza-to-justify-its-sie/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/15/israel-lied-about-isil-soldiers-entering-gaza-to-justify-its-sie/ |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Israel lied about Isil soldiers entering Gaza to justify its siege, Hamas claims|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=15 May 2016|access-date=9 June 2016|last1=Lazareva|first1=Inna}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.daralhayat.com/Spec/12-2003/Article-20031205-4343f65c-c0a8-01ed-0012-e4cdc62232f8/story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051210145051/http://english.daralhayat.com/Spec/12-2003/Article-20031205-4343f65c-c0a8-01ed-0012-e4cdc62232f8/story.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=10 December 2005 |title=Dar Al Hayat |date=10 December 2005 }}</ref>

====Western support of Islamism during the Cold War====
{{further|CIA activities in Afghanistan|Operation Cyclone|Afghan mujahideen}}
[[File:Reagan sitting with people from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region in February 1983.jpg|thumb|Afghan mujahideen representatives with [[List of Presidents of the United States|President]] [[Ronald Reagan]] at the [[White House]] in 1983.]]

During the [[Cold War]], particularly during the 1950s, during the 1960s, and during most of the 1970s, the U.S. and other countries in the [[Western Bloc]] occasionally attempted to take advantage of the rise of Islamic religiousity by directing it against secular [[Left-wing politics|leftist]]/[[Communism|communist]]/[[Nationalism|nationalist]] insurgents/adversaries, particularly against the [[Soviet Union]] and [[Eastern Bloc]] states, whose ideology was not just secular but anti-religious.

In 1957, U.S. President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower]] and senior U.S. foreign policy officials, agreed on a policy of using the communists' lack of religion against them: "We should do everything possible to stress the '[[Jihad|holy war]]' aspect" that has currency in the Middle East.<ref>Annie Jacobsen, "Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins", (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2019), p. 88</ref>

During the 1970s and sometimes later, this aid sometimes went to fledgling Islamists and Islamist groups that later came to be seen as dangerous enemies.<ref name=Berman/> The US spent billions of dollars to aid the [[Soviet–Afghan War#Foreign involvement|mujahideen]] Muslim Afghanistan enemies of the Soviet Union, and non-Afghan [[Afghan Arabs#Attitude to the West|veterans]] of the war (such as [[Osama bin Laden]]) returned home with their prestige, "experience, ideology, and weapons", and had considerable impact.<ref name=ForeignAffairsNovember2005>{{cite news|url=http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20051101facomment84601/peter-bergen-alec-reynolds/blowback-revisited.html |title=Blowback Revisited |magazine=[[Foreign Affairs]] |author=[[Peter Bergen]], Alec Reynolds |date=November–December 2005 |access-date=9 November 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071129203155/http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20051101facomment84601/peter-bergen-alec-reynolds/blowback-revisited.html |archive-date=29 November 2007 }}</ref>

Although it is a strong opponent of Israel's existence, [[Hamas]], officially founded in 1987, traces its origins back to institutions and clerics which were supported by Israel in the 1970s and 1980s. Israel tolerated and supported Islamist movements in Gaza, with figures like [[Sheikh Ahmed Yassin|Ahmed Yassin]], as Israel perceived them preferable to the secular and then more powerful [[al-Fatah]] with the [[PLO]].<ref name=wsj-24-1-09>{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123275572295011847 |title=How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas |first=Andrew |last=Higgins |date=24 January 2009 |work=The Wall Street Journal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115044159/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123275572295011847.html|archive-date=15 January 2013|access-date=15 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.democracynow.org/2006/1/26/how_israel_and_the_united_states |title=How Israel and the United States Helped to Bolster Hamas |date=26 January 2006 |publisher=Democracynow.org |access-date=18 August 2011 |archive-date=17 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110817150529/http://www.democracynow.org/2006/1/26/how_israel_and_the_united_states |url-status=live }}</ref>

Egyptian President [[Anwar Sadat]]{{spaced ndash}}whose policies included opening Egypt to Western investment (''[[infitah]]''); transferring Egypt's allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States; and [[Egypt–Israel peace treaty|making peace with Israel]]—released Islamists from prison and welcomed home exiles in tacit exchange for political support in his struggle against leftists. His "encouraging of the emergence of the Islamist movement" was said to have been "imitated by many other Muslim leaders in the years that followed."<ref>{{cite book |title=Jihad: the trail of political Islam |first=Gilles |last=Kepel |page=83}}</ref><ref>Kepel, Gilles, ''Muslim Extremism in Egypt'', chapter 5, "Vanguard of the Umma"</ref> This "gentlemen's agreement" between Sadat and Islamists broke down in 1975 but not before Islamists came to completely dominate university student unions. Sadat was later assassinated and a [[Terrorism in Egypt|formidable insurgency]] was formed in Egypt in the 1990s. The French government has also been reported to have promoted Islamist preachers "in the hope of channeling Muslim energies into zones of piety and charity."<ref name=Berman>''Terror and Liberalism'' by Paul Berman, W.W. Norton and Company, 2003, p. 101.</ref>