Many people say the course of history would have been changed if the British hadn’t sided with the Saudis instead of the Hashemites (Jordanian royal house). Virtually all the people in the British foreign ministry, unfortunately, were complete islamophiles, so they picked the most aggressively Islamist of the competing groups.
If they’d gone with the Hashemites, life would be very different today.
All the people in the British foreign ministry, unfortunately, are STILL complete Islamophiles.