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/saudi-arabia-obama-al-qaeda-terrorism

  • The kingdom’s murky relationship to terrorism
    http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/09/saudi-arabia-obama-al-qaeda-terrorism/502343

    Much of Saudi support is done by non-state actors. Yet that does not absolve the Saudi government of responsibility. These non-state actors enjoy a range of relationships with the Saudi regime. Some receive or did receive official patronage. Others, particularly those tied to leading clerics in the kingdom, are embraced indirectly by the regime’s self-proclaimed role as defender of the faithful. [..]

    In addition, the Saudi royal family itself occupies an unusual role. In one sense, the royal family—with its tens of thousands of princes—is not the government. However, the finances of the family and the government are interwoven, and if a prince supports a group it has an unofficial imprimatur of approval. King Salman himself, for example, helped raise money for the mujahideen in Afghanistan and the Balkans.

    Many of these voices are responsible for indoctrination rather than direct violence. That is to say, they might propagate views on the satanic nature of Jews, the apostasy of Shiites, or the heretical nature of the Ahmadiyyas, [...]. Such support, in the United States, would often be considered distasteful but part of protected free speech. For terrorists, however, it can prove invaluable as it provides theological legitimacy for their actions, enabling them to attract recruits and funds.

    #terrorisme #arabie_saoudite #Saoud #wahhabites #wahhabisme