Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad.(Book Review)

DELONG-BAS, NATANA J. Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad. Oxford Univ. 2004. c.359p. bibliog. ISBN 0-19-516991-3. $35. REL

Delong-Bas (senior research assistant, Ctr. for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown Univ.) traces the development of Wahhabi Islam from its founding in the 18th century to the aberrations of Osama bin Laden. In so doing, she invites historians to reconsider standard notions about Wahhabism, which has been inaccurately associated with terrorism. She argues that the teachings of Ibn Tamiyya, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, and Sayid Qutb are to he blamed for the concept of violent global jihad, rather than those of Ibn Abd …