HJS: Saudi Arabia Prime Sponsor of British Extremism

Local Editor

A British think tank said Saudi Arabia is "undoubtedly at the top of the list" of countries advancing terrorism and urged the UK government to set up a public inquiry into all Gulf funding sources.

The report by the Henry Jackson Society on Wednesday also called for the government to consider requiring UK religious institutions, including mosques, to be required to reveal sources of overseas funding.

Based on the HJS report, "Saudi Arabia, has since the 1960s, sponsored a multimillion dollar effort to export Wahhabism across the Islamic world, including to Muslim communities in the West."

"In the UK, this funding has primarily taken the form of endowments to mosques and Islamic educational institutions, which have in turn played host to extremist preachers and the distribution of extremist literature. Influence has also been exerted through the training of British Muslim religious leaders in Saudi Arabia, as well as the use of Saudi textbooks in a number of the UK's independent Islamic schools," it added.

HJS's 14-page report also said that a number of Britain's most serious "hate preachers" sit within the Salafi-Wahhabi ideology and are linked to extremism sponsored from overseas.

Tom Wilson, a fellow at the Centre for the Response to Radicalization and Terrorism at the society - and author of the report, said that while countries from across the Gulf had been guilty of advancing extremism, "Saudi Arabia is undoubtedly at the top of the list."

"Research indicates that some Saudi individuals and foundations have been heavily involved in exporting an illiberal, bigoted Wahhabi ideology. So it is ironic, to say the least, that Saudi Arabia is singling out Qatar for links to extremism when it has patently failed to get its own house in order," he continued.

The report said that in 2007 Saudi Arabia was estimated to be spending at least $2bn [£1.5bn] annually on promoting Wahhabism worldwide. By 2015 that figure was believed to have doubled.

The impact of this increased spending may well have been felt in Britain: in 2007, estimates put the number of mosques in Britain adhering to Salafism and Wahhabism at 68. Seven years later, the number of British mosques identified with Wahhabism had risen to 110.

The findings come as Theresa May faces pressure to publish the government's own report into foreign funding of terrorism. The Home Office-led report was completed six months ago, and No 10 said ministers are still deciding whether to publish. MPs nervous of upsetting strategic relations in the Gulf had also decided not to publish a separate Foreign Office strategy paper on the region.

The UK's Saudi Arabian embassy said the claims are "categorically false".

The Home Office report into the existence and influence of extremist organizations, commissioned by former Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015, had reportedly yet to be completed amid questions as to whether it will ever be published.

Earlier this year, the British government approved $4.5 billion worth of arms exports licenses to Saudi Arabia.

May paid a visit to Saudi Arabia in April.

Source: HJS, Edited by website team