Wahhabism's Critics Getting a Voice

This article from a popular Muslim website - yes, lots of anti-American, anti-Israel stuff here so be aware. But of note is the Sadik H. Kassim article on Wahhabisms failures and how it hurts Islam.

Take a look. And note as well his parsing of common tropes of comparing Wahhabism to Puritanism - it's quite on target.

Despite the upsurge in the number of articles, the topic is still treated very superficially. Wahhabis are often described in clichéd terms as being the “Puritans” of the Muslim world. An analogy I have never liked. True the Puritans espoused a literal interpretation of scriptural texts; beyond that, however the similarities are minimal. The Puritans were intellectual heavyweights coupling Renaissance humanism with knowledge of scriptures and divinity. They complemented their religious readings with the Greek classics of Cicero, Virgil, Terence and Ovid. In addition to writing the first children books, they emphasized public schooling for all and founded Harvard, the first American university. For them, religion provided a stimulus and prelude for scientific thought. Among their members, they could count numerous fellows of the Royal Society of London. Most importantly, the Puritans were political and religious outcasts.

The Wahhabis certainly are not Puritans in any true sense of the word. The more apt comparison, I believe, is the evangelical Christian movement in modern times. Both the Wahhabis and the Evangelicals champion an ultra-literalist interpretation of the holy texts, casting them both at odds with the precedents set by their ancestors and with their co-religionists in modern times. Both Evangelicals and Wahhabis shun scientific/rational thought and treat the idea of a renewed interpretation of religious texts as anathema. Both groups have tremendous financial resources enabling the rapid spread of their beliefs. Most importantly, both have disproportionate access to the corridors of power—the Evangelicals and their incestuous relationship with the Bush administration, the Wahhabis and the Saudi royal family, although the latter is in a state of flux.

Now, while it is blatantly (and most likely purposely) erroneous to group "evangelical Christians" into any monolithic whole, and despite the overtly gratuituous swipe at Bush (done perhaps to keep his audience), it is nonetheless an all too accurate picture of a huge portion of American Christians. 'Evangelical"is a horribly misused term in the MSM - but that is because it is a overused term in American Christianity - it is at once a highly debated philosophy of Christian witness, a simple adjective, and a formal denominational construct. It is no wonder its misused by the press and scholars when Christianity itself doesn't have a handle on it.