Wahhabism splits Saudis

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(First of two parts; the conclusion will appear on next Wednesday's briefing page)

JIDDA, Saudi Arabia -- One humid evening in the lush garden of a villa belonging to one of Jidda's oldest merchant families, a select gathering of Saudi men and women sipped orange juice and fanned themselves as they listened to a lecture attacking Wahhabism, Saudi Arabia's austere brand of Islam.

The lecturer was Sami Angawi, self-proclaimed Sufi leader of the Hijaz, a Saudi region runs along the Red Sea and contains the two holiest cities of Islam, Mecca and Medina.

For some time after the al-Saud family imposed its rule on the area in 1925, elections continued to be held for the town councils in Hijaz, but by the 1960s, they had been phased out.

Moreover, Wahhabi Islam -- imported from Najd, the central region of Saudi Arabia -- gradually had stamped out the non-Wahhabi thinking once taken for granted in the Hijaz.

Presenting a slide show during Ramadan, Mr. Angawi reminded his Saudi audience of how Wahhabism had eroded the historic Hijazi urban culture of tolerance and diversity.

Gasps of outrage were heard periodically as the images showed how Wahhabi domination had led to the destruction or neglect of almost all of the Islamic and pre-Islamic history of the Hijaz.

The private house in Medina of the Prophet Muhammad was shown in a state of advanced decay, the rubble reduced to dust under the giant wheels of yellow bulldozers.

"Most of the Islamic heritage in Hijaz has been destroyed by the Saudis," said Ali al-Ahmed, head of the Washington-based Saudi Institute, a prominent Saudi opposition group.