Sahwa movement or al-Sahwa al-Islamiyya (Islamic awakening) was a movement in Saudi Arabia from 1960–1980 which advocated for incorporating more reliance on Wahhabi principles into Saudi society. The most noticeable effects of the movement were significant restrictions on women's rights, religious freedom, and personal liberties.[1] [2] The movement's core doctrines were shaped by the fundamentalist tenets of Qutbism; such as theological denunciations of democracy and the belief that contemporary governments of the Muslim World have apostatised.[3]
Sahwa is a Saudi term that refers to all political Islam movements whose major umbrella is the Qutbi Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia is almost unique in giving the ulema (the body of Islamic religious leaders and jurists) a direct role in government.[4] The Sahwa-inspired ulema have been a key influence in major government decisions, for example the imposition of the oil embargo in 1973 and the invitation to foreign troops to Saudi Arabia in 1990.[5] In addition, they have had a major role in the judicial and education systems[6] and a monopoly of authority in the sphere of religious and social morals.[7]
The movement came to an end after the appointment of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017 who declared a return to “moderate Islam”,[8] [9] but the Sahwa’s ideas and activists, though persecuted,[10] continue to be popular.[11]
Safar al-Hawali, Muhamad Qutb, Muhammad Surur and Salman al-Ouda are the main scholarly representatives of this movement. The Sahwa movement's calls to forcibly expel American troops from the Islamic World would inspire numerous pan-Islamist militant networks; most noticeably Al-Qaeda. Osama Bin Laden's anti-Americanism was shaped by the major intellectual figures of the Sahwa; who popularised Sayyid Qutb's works and ideas. Saudi suppression of Sahwa trends would lead Bin Laden to excommunicate the government and publicly call to overthrow the Saudi authorities during the early 1990s.[12] [13] [14]
Muslim Brotherhood members arrived in Saudi Arabia in the 1950s and 1960s seeking refuge from persecution by the Egyptian socialist regime. They always had disputes with Wahhabism. Wahhabism and the Brotherhood influenced each other and this cross-pollination resulted in the birth of a hybrid movement of religious-political dissent known as the Sahwa movement. It reached a peak in the 1990s before being repressed by the Saudi establishment.[15]
Since the Iranian Revolution, however, the idea of clerical rule has become more attractive within Sunni circles. For example, in the Palestinian territories during the early 1980s some Muslim Brothers were unable to find Sunni justifications for active resistance to the Israelis and, therefore, turned to Khomeinist teachings.[16]
Sahwa members write public petitions and circulate sermons on audio cassettes. Sahwa leaders demand a bigger role for clergy in governing, curbs on the royal family's privileges, greater transparency for public funds, and a more Islamically conservative society as a defense against Western cultural influences.[15]
They oppose the presence of US troops on the Muslim land. In 1991, al-Hawali delivered a sermon stating: "What is happening in the Gulf is part of a larger Western design to dominate the whole Arab and Muslim world."[17]