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The most conservative Islamic trend in Saudi Arabia may be losing some of its strength. Wahhabism is a school of thought named after a cleric who preached a form of Islam 200 years ago. It is overtly hostile to other religions and even to other Muslims. The royal family has been aligned with the Wahhabi establishment since the founding of the modern Saudi state some 70 years ago. Now there are signs that alliance is weakening. NPR's Mike Shuster reports from Riyadh, the Saudi capital.
MIKE SHUSTER reporting:
Saudi Arabia is more than the Wahhabis, much more. That's the message that many intellectuals here are quick to tell visitors. Newspaper columnist Suleiman al-Hattlan insists those who continue to believe in the Wahhabi school of Islamic thought are a diminishing minority in the oil-rich desert kingdom.
Mr. SULEIMAN AL-HATTLAN (Newspaper Columnist): People in this country are not only one particular group. We have absolutely diversity of backgrounds, diversity of school of thoughts within the Islamic culture itself.
SHUSTER: And, like any other idea, Wahhabism is fair game for public discussion and criticism, al-Hattlan insists. Wahhabism takes its name from Mohammed Abdul Wahhab, who lived in the early 1800s. He preached a harsh and exclusionary form of Islam, hostile to Christians, Jews, Shiite Muslims and even those Sunni Muslims deemed insufficiently pious. His disciples in modern Saudi Arabia believe those forces, now led by the United States, Israel and their pernicious modernizing culture, are in direct conflict with Islam, says Michael Doran, a Middle East expert at the Council...