Saturday, October 31, 2015

Center for Beheading Studies in Saudi Arabia

"Saudi Arabia’s new research centre on Wahhabism, set to open on the edge of the capital Riyadh, looks fitting for a branch of Islam considered inflexible, intolerant and unchanging. Here, King Salman, monarch of the world’s biggest oil exporter, has a turreted palace overlooking the crumbled mud brick homes of his ancestors now undergoing preservation. And it was here that Abdul Wahhab’s partnership with a contemporary local chief, Imam Mohammed bin Saud, laid the foundations for today’s kingdom and its reliance on the sheikh’s 270-year-old teachings.

Although the heart of the 750-million-riyal ($200-million/179-million-euro) project will be Atturaif, the adjacent Abdul Wahhab Foundation is designed to honour the sheikh’s role as co-founder of the state and tell “the truth” about his intellectual heritage, Arrakban said."(thanks Basim)