Saudi Petrodollars, Spiritual Capital, and the Islamic University of Medina: A Wahhabi Missionary Project in Transnational Perspective

Abstract

While the idea that Saudi Arabia has functioned as a beacon of ultraconservative religious influence since the 1970s oil boom is commonplace, the modalities of this influence have rarely been seriously interrogated. As a window onto this issue, this article considers the history of the Islamic University of Medina, an influential Wahhabi missionary project with global ambitions. It pays particular attention to the role played by non-Saudi staff, who for long periods made up a majority of the university's faculty. Previous accounts of migrants working in Saudi religious educational institutions have tended to focus on the contested question of their contribution to the rise of politically activist modes of Islamism within the kingdom. In contrast, the account offered here draws on the concept of spiritual capital to argue that they also played an important part in legitimizing the expansion of the Wahhabi mission to diverse Muslim communities around the world.

Saudi Arabia and daʿwa Mission: The Role of Muslim World League and Islamic University of Medina in Spreading Wahhabi-Salafi Doctrine in the 1960s.

“…The members of the Advisory Council, later replaced by the Supreme Council, were selected from different geographical regions, demonstrating the university's homogeneity and consisted of scholars, luminaries, and experts in Islamic sciences primarily associated with the Salafi network. Their role was to assess the university's operations and suggest structural improvements 77 .…”

The Final Domino: Yasir Qadhi, Youtube, and Evolution

“…One form of Salafi Islam is a strand commonly referred to as Wahhabism––the name being a derogatory term derived from its founder Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al‐Wahhab (1703–92)––which has thus been adopted as the official religion of the Saudi Arabian state who have invested billions of dollars in promoting it globally (Birt 2005; Farquhar 2015). As a result, Saudi Arabia has become the leading proponent of Salafi interpretations of Islam (Hamid 2016, 54).…”

“…The hope was that after several years of religious studies, they would return to their home communities or settle elsewhere to promote the particular conception of orthodoxy they had learned in Medina. (Farquhar 2015)…”

Praktik Penentuan Harga Jual Berbasis Meuramin

“…Untuk meraih keuntungan tidak saja dibutuhkan modal materi, tetapi juga mo dal spiritual (spiritual capital). Modal spiritual (spiritual capital) dalam Islam bermakna kekuatan dan pengaruh yang dihasilkan oleh hubungan seseorang dengan Allah SWT (Farquhar, 2015;Rudnyckyj, 2016;Stead & Stead, 2014;Stokes, Baker, & Lichy, 2016). Artinya, kuat tidaknya hubungan seseorang dengan Allah akan memberikan kekuatan dan pengaruh kehidupan.…”