69 million page views

As much as I respect Bernard Lewis, I think his comment was hyperbole. Certainly history refutes him.

Reader comment on item: Islam and Islamism in the Modern World
in response to reader comment: More to the story than reported here!

Submitted by GK (United States), Feb 3, 2013 at 23:39

Dr. Pipes

Bernard Lewis was a far-sighted Cassandra long before anyone focused on his issues of concern. But regarding the Ottomans being "taken by surprise", I think his assessment is part historical and part hyperbole. First, since the Reconquista, Europeans began asserting a posture against the Ottomans. When the Ottomans failed to conquer Vienna under the generalship of Suleyman in 1529, and then defeated (in 1683) by the Hapsburgs, the Ottomans had to be aware that the Europeans were their able competitors.

I think that we International Affairs wonks need to focus more on how Wahhabism came to dominate Sunni Islam than on whether or not the fall of Ottoman-led Islam was a surprise. By 1740, Sheik Abdul Wahhab was revolutionizing Islam from Mecca and Jeddah. The British saw that by co-opting Abdul Wahhab's incendiary Fiqh, they could weaken Ottoman influence on the Red Sea and in Jeddah and Mecca. The Saud family was eventually empowered, and through British diplomacy that the House of Saud and the British developed lasting alliances. After Wahhab's death in 1787, the House of Saud saw major opportunities for expansion, and the Europeans would play a significant role in the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East, and the rise of Wahabbism.

By the 1790's the Europeans knocking at the door of all Ottoman North Africa. The Treaty of Tripoli was the first treaty concluded between the United States of America and Tripolitania, signed at Tripoli on November 4, 1796, submitted to the Senate by President John Adams, ratified unanimously on June 7, 1797 and signed by Adams on June 10, 1797. In 1798, Napoleon landed his troops in Ottoman Egypt, quickly overran the Nile Delta and advanced into Syria. The British defeated the French armies but the incursion of a European power into the theological heart of the Ottoman Empire caused a focus on defense of Anatolia proper. This gave Emir Abdul Aziz of Najd who had succeeded his father Emir Muhammed ibn Saud captured Karbala in Iraq in 1802. He followed up this victory with the capture of Mecca in 1803, bringing a major portion of Arabia, extending from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf, under Saudi control.

Sheik Abdul Wahhab outlined his vision of Islam cleansed of the accretions that had been adopted over the centuries. Wahhab's fiqh took issue with every Muslim and kafir who held a different theology. It was a return to the bad-old days of Al-Mohad Spain, but this time with British assistance. However, the Ottomans fight the Wahhabis for more than a decade and ultimately lost hegemony over the region only after the Ottoman allies, the Germans, lost WWI. This then allowed Saudi sovereignty to solidify over Arabia, and led to the eventual sunsetting of the Ottoman fiqh and the ascendance of the Wahhabi fiqh.

As, we know now, however, the dedicated Wahhabists can stand no other digression from their strict orthodoxy. Shiite, or Sufi or kafir … all are equally guilty of blasphemy and deserving of the ultimate penalty. And it is how this theological and philosophical shift took place in the 20th Century that is one of the most poorly understood dynamics in Middle Eastern affairs today. And with it, the decline of Muslim charitable support for secularist imams and fiqh, and the rise of Muslim charitable support for Islamist imams and fiqh wherever Saudi and Wahabbi/salafist influence can penetrate.

I would also like to propose a different angle on your comment about Muslims laboring under Saudi and other influences. Very certainly, I agree, "It's also distressing to see how non-Muslim individuals and institutions, particularly those on the left, indulge Islamist misbehavior." You say that corporations, nonprofits, and government institutions are, "…working with the Islamists, helping promote the Islamist agenda." And that, "The American left and the Islamists agree on what they dislike—conservatives—and, despite their profound differences, they cooperate." I believe that the West's liberals are potential allies in helping moderate Muslims and non-Islamists to understand the repression and harm that Salafist Islamism can do to personal liberties and to everything that liberal society has strived for over the past 300 or more years. And that liberals who believe in personal liberty need to work to free the moderate Muslim world from the unfree Fiqh promoted by the Wahabbist cause.

Submitting....

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

Submit a comment on this item

Reader comments (35) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
1The Dark Ages of Islamic countries [273 words]AlexandrosFeb 28, 2013 11:08203934
They wont accept the facts and the logic. [123 words]AtheistFeb 14, 2013 02:18203484
1It is about grabbing more land [122 words]PrashantFeb 13, 2013 09:07203448
Advocating a Betrayal of Conservatism? [280 words]Ali BabaFeb 5, 2013 16:25203214
2More gems from our dear Ali Baba [294 words]dhimmi no moreFeb 6, 2013 07:37203214
Fact check please [278 words]Ali BabaFeb 7, 2013 19:58203214
1Scripture comparison is simplistic and narrow [162 words]saraFeb 7, 2013 20:20203214
Facts ARE always simplistic [101 words]Ali BabaFeb 7, 2013 22:15203214
Does the goalpost shift for Islam? [184 words]Ali BabaFeb 7, 2013 22:33203214
3Our dear Ali Baba is saying that Islam is violent and as if we did not know [937 words]dhimmi no moreFeb 8, 2013 06:52203214
1Our dear Ali Baba quotes the Bible to prove a point which means that he disagrees with Allah astaghfirullah [129 words]dhimmi no moreFeb 8, 2013 06:59203214
Dhimmi makes a good point [41 words]Ali BabaFeb 9, 2013 00:24203214
3Our dear Ali Baba is saying that Islam is violent and as if we did not know part two [765 words]dhimmi no moreFeb 9, 2013 06:20203214
Certainly... [177 words]Ali BabaFeb 10, 2013 03:45203214
3Teaching one tablighee at a time [1710 words]dhimmi no moreFeb 10, 2013 08:02203214
2Lost tablighees [381 words]dhimmi no moreFeb 11, 2013 07:17203214
More simple facts [141 words]JeffFeb 15, 2013 13:34203214
A few corrections [158 words]Ali BabaFeb 16, 2013 17:56203214
Sharia law [131 words]stanley bFeb 16, 2013 18:20203214
1Our dear Ali Baba says that anyone who is fasting during Ramadan in Tennessee will end in jail for 15 years! [497 words]dhimmi no moreFeb 17, 2013 08:10203214
Let us have a deal our dear Ali Baba al-tablighee [173 words]dhimmi no moreFeb 17, 2013 09:25203214
A few more corrections [268 words]JeffFeb 17, 2013 11:02203214
... FELLOW MUSLIMS & ALL [28 words]Nur el Masih Ben HaqFeb 18, 2013 22:48203214
8Oppose the islamists ! Always ! [97 words]Phil GreendFeb 4, 2013 18:57203167
1Authentic and authoritative commentary. [47 words]Beverly McCaffreyFeb 4, 2013 18:53203166
America's distorted view of Islam and the Saudi Sunni Lobby [776 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Martin H KatchenFeb 4, 2013 15:01203156
1Islamic Lobby [91 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Ali BabaFeb 6, 2013 12:34203156
1The Saudi Sunni Lobby (or should we say the Wahabi Lobby?) [415 words]Martin H KatchenFeb 6, 2013 22:53203156
Learning curve [77 words]William EastFeb 4, 2013 13:42203154
Secularism will NOT solve the problem [192 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Rabbi Yeshayahu HollanderFeb 4, 2013 09:21203139
Islam and Islamism in The Modern World [98 words]JudithFeb 4, 2013 00:18203123
Aid to Egypt [47 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Jack WaltersFeb 3, 2013 23:17203117
3More to the story than reported here! [765 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
GKFeb 3, 2013 17:13203102
1As much as I respect Bernard Lewis, I think his comment was hyperbole. Certainly history refutes him. [718 words]GKFeb 3, 2013 23:39203102
Bernard Lewis's hyperbole [427 words]Martin H. KatchenFeb 5, 2013 00:26203102

Follow Daniel Pipes

Facebook   Twitter   RSS   Join Mailing List

All materials by Daniel Pipes on this site: © 1968-2024 Daniel Pipes. daniel.pipes@gmail.com and @DanielPipes

Support Daniel Pipes' work with a tax-deductible donation to the Middle East Forum.Daniel J. Pipes

(The MEF is a publicly supported, nonprofit organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Tax-ID 23-774-9796, approved Apr. 27, 1998.

For more information, view our IRS letter of determination.)