While there were many factors that would have had to be taken into account in preventing this phenomenon from occurring, perhaps the single most decisive historical event that led to the eventual proliferation of what many simply regard as "Islamist extremism" was the overthrow of the Hashemite Sharif of Mecca, Hussein bin Ali, and the conquest of Hejaz and unification of Arabia by the House of Saud. Prior to that, Wahhabism, correctly recognized as the ideological doctrine that is part of virtually every Salafi-Jihadi organization including IS, had no real presence or legitimacy in the two holiest sites of Islam, Mecca and Medina, and thus no real attention in the Muslim World outside of Nejd. With control of the two holiest cities, and perhaps more importantly, with the discovery of massive deposits of oil in succeeding decades in the regions of Nejd and Eastern Arabia, the Saudis were able to appease the Wahhabi clerical class by exporting Wahhabism across the Sunni Muslim World by the 1970s, just as the Arab World and many other newly independent Muslim-majority states were slowly reeling back from nationalism and secularization.
Therefor, there are technically two PODs you'd have to have to prevent the phenomenon of intensive sectarianism and "Islamist extremism" from emerging:
- Prevent Ibn Saud from conquering Hejaz and enforcing Wahhabism under the authority of being the "Custodian of the Two Holiest Mosques"
- Allow the Hashemites (or really any non-Wahhabi ruler) to conquer Nejd, thus securing access to the oil supply there and making sure that there is no way for the Wahhabi to finance their international expansion.
Therefor, there are technically two PODs you'd have to have to prevent the phenomenon of intensive sectarianism and "Islamist extremism" from emerging:
- Prevent Ibn Saud from conquering Hejaz and enforcing Wahhabism under the authority of being the "Custodian of the Two Holiest Mosques"
- Allow the Hashemites (or really any non-Wahhabi ruler) to conquer Nejd, thus securing access to the oil supply there and making sure that there is no way for the Wahhabi to finance their international expansion.
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