https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabism
Wahhabism is named after an eighteenth-century preacher and
activist, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792). He started a
reform movement in the remote, sparsely populated region of Najd,
advocating a purging of such widespread Sunni practices as the
veneration of saints, the seeking of their intercession, and the
visiting of their tombs, all of which were practiced all over the
Islamic world, but which he considered idolatry (shirk), impurities
and innovations in Islam (Bid'ah). Eventually he formed a pact with
a local leader, Muhammad bin Saud, offering political obedience and
promising that protection and propagation of the Wahhabi movement
meant "power and glory" and rule of "lands and men."
The alliance between followers of ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Muhammad
bin Saud's successors (the House of Saud)
proved to be a durable one. The House of Saud
continued to maintain its politico-religious alliance with the
Wahhabi sect through the waxing and waning of its own political
fortunes over the next 150 years, through to its eventual
proclamation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932, and then
afterwards, on into modern times. Today Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab's
teachings are the official, state-sponsored form of Sunni Islam in
Saudi Arabia. With the help of funding from Saudi petroleum exports
(and other factors), the movement underwent "explosive growth"
beginning in the 1970s and now has worldwide influence. The US
State Department has estimated that over the past four decades the
capital Riyadh has invested more than $10bn (£6bn) into charitable
foundations in an attempt to replace mainstream Sunni Islam with
the harsh intolerance of its Wahhabism.
The "boundaries" of Wahhabism have been called "difficult to
pinpoint", but in contemporary usage, the terms Wahhabi and Salafi
are often used interchangeably, and they are considered to be
movements with different roots that have merged since the 1960s.
However, Wahhabism has also been called "a particular orientation
within Salafism", or an ultra-conservative, Saudi brand of
Salafism. Estimates of the number of adherents to Wahhabism vary,
with one source (Mehrdad Izady) giving a figure of fewer than 5
million Wahhabis in the Persian Gulf region (compared to 28.5
million Sunnis and 89 million Shia).
The majority of mainstream Sunni and Shia Muslims worldwide
strongly disagree with the interpretation of Wahhabism, and many
Muslims would denounce them as a faction or a "vile sect". Islamic
scholars, including those from the Al-Azhar University, regularly
denounce Wahhabism with terms such as "Satanic faith".
Wahhabism has been accused of being "a source of global
terrorism", inspiring the ideology of the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria (ISIS), and for causing disunity in Muslim communities by
labelling Muslims who disagreed with the Wahhabi definition of
monotheism as apostates (takfir) and justifying their killing. It
has also been criticized for the destruction of historic shrines of
saints, mausoleums, and other Muslim and non-Muslim buildings and
artifacts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabism
