Search results for ""Author David Commins""

"Royal power, oil, and puritanical Islam are primary elements in Saudi Arabia’s rise to global influence. Oil is the reason for Western interest in the kingdom and the foundation for commercial, diplomatic, and strategic relations. Were it not for oil, the government of Saudi Arabia would lack the resources to construct a modern economy and infrastructure, and to thrust the kingdom into regional prominence. Were it not for oil, Saudi Arabia would not be able to fund institutions that spread its religious doctrine to Muslim and non-Muslim countries. That doctrine, commonly known as Wahhabism, is a puritanical form of Islam that is distinctive in a number of ways, most visibly for how it makes public observance of religious norms a matter of government enforcement rather than individual disposition and social conformity, as it is in other Muslim countries."—from the Introduction Saudi Arabia is often portrayed as a country where religious rules dictate every detail of daily life: where women may not drive; where unrelated men and women may not interact; where women veil their faces; and where banks, restaurants, and cafés have dual facilities: one for families, another for men. Yet everyday life in the kingdom does not entirely conform to dogma. David Commins challenges the stereotype of Saudi Arabia as a country immune to change by highlighting the ways that urbanization, education, consumerism, global communications, and technological innovation have exerted pressure against rules issued by the religious establishment. Commins places the Wahhabi movement in the wider context of Islamic history, showing how state-appointed clerics built on dynastic backing to fashion a model society of Sharia observance and moral virtue. Beneath a surface appearance of obedience to Islamic authority, however, he detects reflections of Arabia’s heritage of diversity (where Shi’ite and Sufi tendencies predating the Saudi era survive in the face of discrimination) and the effects of its exposure to Western mores.

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On 20th November 1979, the Salafi Group, led by a charismatic figure named Juhaiman al-Utaibi, seized control of the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, the holiest site in the Muslim World. The Salafi Group was not trying to establish an Islamic state. Instead, its members believed they were players in a prophetic script about the End of Time. After a two-week siege, the Saudi government recaptured the mosque, threw the survivors into prison, and had them publicly executed. The Mecca Uprising offers an insider's account of the religious subculture that incubated the Mecca Uprising, written by a former member of the Salafi Group, Nasir al-Huzaimi. Huzaimi did not participate in the uprising, but he was arrested in a government sweep of Salafi Group members and spent six years in prison. In 2011, he published his memoir, Days with Juhaiman, offering the most detailed picture we have of the Salafi Group and Juhaiman. The Mecca Uprising had profound effects on Saudi Arabia and the Muslim world[DC1] [YG2] . The Saudi government headed off opposition from religious activists and made efforts to buttress the ruling family’s legitimacy as the guardians of Islam. Huzaimi’s memoir sheds light on the background of this religious and political landscape, and is the most detailed account we have of the Salafi Group and Juhaiman. The English edition is complete with an introduction and annotations prepared by expert David Commins to help readers understand the relevance of the Meccan Uprising [DC3] and how it fits into the history of the Islamic World. [DC1]lower case? Muslim world [YG2]changed to author’s suggestion [DC3]Mecca Uprising

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