What is happening with the Saudi supported religious schools?
In January 2020 I published a blog that read “SAUDI ARABIA WILL NO LONGER FUND MOSQUES ABROAD.” This was so startling in the counterterrorism game that I will repeat it here as background: “Since the very first GMJ Novel, published in late 2014, Code Name VFO565, I spoke of the “Muslim Truce” which is officially denied by the authorities. Be that as it may, I stated that the new South African Government reached out to what many will call “Islamic Radicals” and offered or negotiated a deal - they will be welcomed to recuperate and be protected in this sphere but only if they behave. That is the spirit of Ubuntu, something that I explain in Code Name Swan 53 where we reveal how the Truce came into being. It comes down to the duty to protect a guest when he is under your roof. It is something found in Afghanistan too. Because it is so important, you will read a lot of the “Muslim Truce” in the Intelligence Briefing and other books.
Practically, from about 2005 we started noticing new mosques springing up across sub-Saharan Africa. We wondered why, this is not a predominately Muslim area, it is nominally Roman Catholic Christian (or ancestor tribal religion). There was no “Muslim revival” going on. The Muslims were not being suppressed despite claims to the contrary. All things considered, there simply should not have been so many new mosques for any logical reason, thus we kept a close eye on them. It soon became apparent that they were all funded by Saudi Arabia and that set off warning bells. Both ISIS and Al-Qaeda are Sunni Muslim groups or say that they are. The leading Sunni nation is Saudi Arabia with Pakistan just behind them. Not Iran, wake up Donald J Trump, who is Shia orientated and thus natural enemies of the mentioned terrorist groups. It is safe to say that Sunni and Shia dislike each other as much as Roman Catholics and Protestants once did. Therefore the presence of the Sunni / Saudi funded mosques was worrisome and they are in every country where a Muslim is to be found.
See the quote below why this worried us: “It’s a fact that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest sponsor of radical Islam on the planet, and no other nation is even close. Since the 1980s, over $100 billion has ‘been spent on exporting’ Wahhabism (the brand of Islam that controls Saudi Arabia and is most prevalent in madrassas - very extreme, GMJ). According to Foreign Policy Magazine, an “estimated 10 to 15 percent of madrassas are affiliated with extremist religious or political groups,” while the number of madrassas in places like Pakistan and India has increased exponentially – from barely 200 to over 40,000 just in Pakistan. Even the State Department noted during the Obama administration that Saudi Arabia was the ‘most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide,’ and said Qatar and Saudi Arabia were “providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups.” US Senator Rand Paul, October 2018.
There is no reason to doubt the above statement.
We studied Radical Islam in detail to get the complete picture, to understand the way such people think, to find weaknesses to be exploited. I took the time to explain Islam versus radical Islam in my books. You cannot understand Islamic counter-terrorism operations, you will be lost. Note please, the Muslim radicals are an extremely small percentage of otherwise good people. I don’t write, “anti-Islam” books. Nor do I care what your religious beliefs are unless you become a terrorist in enforcing them. Note that in June 2018 a Nigerian (Muslim) imam saved 262 Christian men, women and children. They were attacked by gunmen, not Boko Haram but Muslim herdsmen in an ongoing tribal land dispute in Plateau State, Nigeria. He took the Christians in, hiding them in his house and mosque, refusing to let the criminals gain access to them. In the end, they left empty-handed, burning two churches down. We admire such acts, very much and so should you.
And so I was surprised when last week Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Issa, former Saudi Minister of Justice (LOL) and Secretary-General of the Muslim World League announced that Saudi Arabia will no longer fund mosques abroad. “The same measures will be taken around the world. In every country, there will be a local board of administration set up in coordination with the national authorities. This is necessary, for example, for security reasons. We should ensure that the mosques end up in safe hands. Then we will no longer intervene...”
Since we know that the mosques, some of them, were and are used to spread a radical message, this is good news if followed through. Probably, what is happening, is that the very same terrorists are now turning on the Saudi Royal Family. They live in fear of another Arab Spring which will certainly lead to them being slaughtered if captured. With modern communications channels, the internet, it is impossible to stay stuck in AD 700 thinking. Whatever, this will have major repercussions in the counter terrorism world.”
So much so for that blog and that statement. Now it came out that Saudi Arabia will fund up to 600 new madrassas (religious schools) in Afghanistan with at least one “college” thrown in too. The process is well under the way already. Will these schools become radical too? Well, yes, obviously. Why would history not repeat? Welcome to the new wave of terrorists being indoctrinated with Saudi money to attack you in the future. Read also Code Name Wednesday 7 in how we spotted the mosques first in sub-Saharan Africa. You might be surprised in what you discover.
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