(St. Petersburg Times) Mary Jacoby and Graham Brink - For more than three decades, Saudi-backed organizations have poured billions of dollars into the U.S. and other countries to fund Wahhabi mosques, Islamic schools, and conferences. The main clearinghouse for Wahhabism in the U.S. is the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), subsidized by the Saudi government. An ISNA subsidiary called the North American Islamic Trust owns about 27% of the estimated 1,200 mosques in the U.S., says a report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Khalid Duran, an Islamic scholar and author, said the trust wants "all the mosques to be ideologically pure in their own Wahhabist line." Duran and others said the trust often takes title to a mosque after extremists have seized control. Soon, Wahhabi literature shows up in the mosques and related Islamic schools, and only Wahhabi-oriented speakers are allowed to talk.
2003-03-12 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive