The Saudi Link to the Mumbai Attacks

In a number of news articles, the suspected role of Saudi financing for the recent Mumbai attacks have been reported. However, the investigative authorities have not publicly confirmed or denied any Saudi linkages to the attack at this juncture. However, these reports are not unfounded, considering the evidenced patronage of Saudi Arabia and groups considered to be fronts for terrorist outfits.

The history of Saudi involvement with terrorism can be traced to its strict interpretation of Islam called Wahabism. Wahabism is a strong component of Saudi society and is given strength on the basis that it is the sole legitimizing factor for the Saudi Monarchy, which is the protector of the two holiest shrines in Islam. Wahabism was cultivated in the mid 18th century by an Islamic preacher Wahhab. Attributing prevailing political woes in the Islamic caliphate to the impure interpretation of Islam, Wahhab established new decrees and a hardline interpretation of Koranic verses which strengthened the hands of a tribal group in present day Saudi Arabia. This group was the Saud family, which founded the state and became its imperial rulers. It is this combination of religious extremism and political control which resulted in the Saudi family engaging in large scale efforts to preach Wahabism worldwide and strengthen its own legitimacy.
Sheikh Bin Baz, for example, a leading Islamic authority and grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia is regarded in counter-terrorism circles to be a leading figure of preaching Wahabi influences to Muslims worldwide. According to one account, Bin Baz preached that the Koran “with absolute clarity states that there is a religious requirement to despise the infidel Jews and Christians and the other mushrikun [polytheists] until they believe in Allah alone”. Bin Baz is known to have been the mentor of Abullah Azzam who in return was a teacher and mentor to Osama Bin Laden. It was Azzam’s fatwa which called upon all Muslims to fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan in 1979 which brought Bin Laden to the sub-continent. Bin Baz was supportive of the fatwa and exhorted for help to the Mujahideen fighters.
The Saudi royal family in response to the fatwa edict resorted to heavy funding of the Mujahideen groups in Afghanistan. Some accounts state that the Saudis matched the funding provided by the United States and the United Kingdom to the groups. This funding to Mujahideen groups in the aftermath of the war and gave rise to the single most powerful Mujahideen militia- The Taliban. The Taliban owing to its own exhortation of Wahabi Islamic edits was supported by the Saudis and reveled by Pakistan, for it had achieved an allied group which would help against India by providing support for the struggle in Kashmir.
Terrorism fundraising from Saudi Arabia is not limited to the Saudi family. According to the Islamic principle of Zakat (one of the 5 main principles), a pious Muslim is obligated to part from 2.5 % of their wealth and assets each year. This is a sacrificial amount which has been institutionalized in the Arab banking sector, and owing to this nature is an unrecorded transaction. This money is aimed to help better the lives of lesser privileged Muslims worldwide, and in many instances funds charities and Islamic schools called Madrasahs.
These charities and Madrasahs have been blamed for being fronts for terrorist organizations and Madrasahs have been accused of preaching a violent and hate filled Wahabi ideologue to its students. For example, According to Indian intelligence authorities in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Central Bureau of Investigation, some Indian Madrasahs were used by the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) organization to indoctrinate young, impressionable minds for future terrorist activities against a "Hindu" state. Madrasahs in neighboring states to India are a major area of concern. For example, an Islamic charitable group called Pantech, which is based in Pakistan, is responsible for the development of Madrasahs in Nepal. This group has been recognized as a front of the ISI by the Indian intelligence agencies.
According to a report in a Pakistani magazine, by the end of 2001 there were 2,715 Wahabi seminars with 250,000 students in the state of Punjab alone, and these students are tutored in ‘unusual’ skills ranging from religious propaganda to guerrilla combat. According to a news report, the lone captured gunman of the Mumbai assault is said to have been radicalized in a Madrasah in the Pakistani side of the Kashmir.
The leader of the Lashkar E Tayeeba, the organization which has been implicated to be behind the recent carnage also has a Saudi link. Moh.d Sayeed had traveled to Saudi Arabia in his early years for higher education. The connecting link and a major influence was Sheikh Abdullah Azzam—a Palestinian from Jenin refugee camp—who had links with Ikhawan-ul-Muslimoon (Muslim Brotherhood) of Egypt and a well-known ideologue of Afghan jihad. It was owing to these connections and influences that the Lashkar E Tayeeba was established in 1990. His religious establishment the Markaz Dawa-Wal-Irshad is linked to the Wahabi organization Dawa Wal Irshad. According to a CIA analyst, the group is known to have been receiving Saudi funding for its activities, which while publicly showcases humanitarian work is accused by the Indian government of being a training ground for Kashmiri militants.
The Saudi link is further established when the alliance between the Lashkar and another potent terrorist outfit- the Jaish E Mohommad is reviewed. The Jaish E Mohommad was established by Maulana Masood Azhar, when he was released by India in exchange for hostages during the hijacking of an Indian airplane. Masood is known to have been a part of the Mujahideen operating against the Soviets. Holding close ties with Maulana Fazlur-Rehman Khalil, he was a member of a religious body which helped create the Taliban and was responsible for the induction of foreign fighters into Kashmir. He traveled to Saudi Arabia among other countries, for recruitment and fundraising for the Kashmiri struggle.
According to a commentary on the International Counter Terrorism website, ‘On 12/9/1995, the Saudi newspaper Okaz published a report surveying the situation in Kashmir six years following the Indian occupation. The article broadly details the Kashmiri uprising against the Indians while expressing explicit support of the Jihad war. The end of the article called on all Muslims to provide assistance to the Kashmiri people to retrieve their land, since this is an all-Islamic issue’.
Despite efforts by the Saudi Arabian government to stem the flow of Zakat and regular donations to fronts of terrorist organizations, there exists a strong back channel lifeline of money to organizations around the world. The ideological preaching of Wahabism from Saudi sponsored charities and Madrasahs continue to be a festering ground for terrorist recruitments.
Terrorist activities in India have long had linkages to Saudi Arabia, which have not been actively pursued or have not been reported owing to lack of actionable evidence. In the last attack in Mumbai in 2006, Joint Commissioner of Police, ATS, K P Raghuvanshi said: “One installment of 25,000 Rials was sent to Mumbai before the blasts and another 12,000 Rials to Pune on July 14 (three days after the serial blasts)”.
Two arrested suspects for the attack on Indian Institute of Sciences in Bangalore were found to have links with the Al Hadees group, which is based in Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia. No follow up on the Saudi role of the attack has been reported. A suspected Saudi fundraiser was arrested in New Delhi, was released after questioning earlier this year.
Al Faghi, a Saudi dissident, in an interview to Loretta Napoleoni, explains the difficulties the Saudi government faces in cracking down on terrorist fundraising. Deriving legitimacy from the Wahabi religious clerics results in a conflict of interests because the Saudi black sheep (read Bin Laden) and the clerics seek to rid the Muslim world of western influence in order to facilitate the spreading of Wahabism.