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Wahhabis Religion
The Wahhabis Religion is a particularly conservative or ascetic form of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, often linked with the Taliban. The sect was originated by Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab in the 18th century in an area now known as Saudi Arabia. It is referred to as a sect within Islam though many dispute this. Practioners do not like to be called Wahhabi but prefer the term Unitarian.
It was believed that Islam should be returned to its origins and should be separated from any innovations in Islam. Wahhabi vehemently advocated that “taking the graves as a place of worship” is wrong. Wahhabis are an extremist and violent religious group who foster violence and unrest throughout Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Middle East.
For this reason, Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab destroyed many graves and was also considering destroying the grave of the Prophet Muhammad, out of fear that it maybe worshipped. The faith has developed considerable influence in the Muslim world through the funding of mosques, schools and other means from Persian Gulf oil wealth. The primary doctrine of Wahhabi is Tawhid, or the uniqueness and unity of God as pronounced by Ibn Abdul Wahhab and influenced by the writings of Ibn Taymiyya, a Hanbali jurist who in some of his writings considered calling on pious figures as intermediaries for one's prayers to be an innovation. Ibn Abdul Wahhab went further in considering it an act of idolatry, and despite being accepted by centuries of Muslim scholarship, his sect considered its practitioners and advocates to be outside of Islam and permissible to kill, raid, and enslave. He preached against a "perceived moral decline and political weakness" in the Arabian Peninsula and condemned what he saw as idolatry in the form of shrine and tomb visitation. Vast wealth from oil discovered in recent times, coupled with Saudi control of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, have since provided a base and funding for Wahhabi missionary activity. When the Saudis took control of Mecca and Medina in 1925, they attempted to demolish the dome of the Prophet's Mosque, in accordance with al-Wahhabi's teachings about idolatry.
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