Editing Islamism (section)

====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>