Has Saudi Arabian Funding Spread Wahhabism around the World?

A Corporation-supported project explores the nature and impact of Saudi religious influence in nations across multiple world regions

By Carnegie Corporation of New York May 11, 2022

Arab Region Transitions

Inaugurated in 2000, the King Fahd Mosque and Islamic Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina – the largest mosque in Latin America – was a gift from Saudi Arabia. (Credit: Roberto Fiadone)

For more than half a century, Saudi Arabia — through both official and nongovernmental channels and in coordination with the United States and other governments — invested billions of dollars to fund religious activities and causes around the world aligned with Wahhabism, an austere form of Islam associated with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's religious establishment.

Carnegie Corporation of New York is a supporter of the Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power project at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, which has systematically studied the use of religion in foreign affairs by 44 countries to date.

The leader of the Berkley Center project, Peter Mandaville, is the editor of the recently published Wahhabism and the World: Understanding Saudi Arabia's Global Influence on Islam (Oxford University Press, 2022) — the first global academic study of the topic. The book is a collection of essays by leading scholars who explore the origins and evolution of Saudi religious transnationalism, assess ongoing debates about the impact of these influences in various regions and localities around the world, and discuss recent and future trends under new Saudi leadership.

In the webinar “Wahhabism and the World: A Conversation with Peter Mandaville,” Mandaville explores Saudi Arabia’s global impact on Islam in a discussion with contributing author Alexander Thurston, assistant professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati whose research focuses on the Sahel region and West Africa, and moderator Annelle Sheline, research fellow for the Middle East at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Watch the full webinar and learn more about the project “Wahhabism and the World: A Conversation with Peter Mandaville.”