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I didn't find much info on that, but have this snippet from an article titled "origins of Wahhabism": he was a Shi'i. He positioned himself towards the Kabba and started to pray, and suddenly a soldier rushed towards him, as if he had been monitoring his moves, and kicked him while he was in a position of prostration. The man fell on his back unconscious, then the soldier started beating him and cursing him. I felt so sorry for the old man and thought he might have been killed and so I shouted at the soldier, "You must not do that! Why did you beat him while he was praying?" He rebuked me and said, "You be quiet and do not interfere, or else I will do to you what I have just done to him!" I realized that the soldier was full of aggression, so I avoided him, but I felt angry at myself for not being able to help those who are unjustly treated, and felt angry at the Saudis who treat the people as they like without any check or accountability for their actions. There were some visitors who witnessed the attack, but all that they could do was to say, "There is no power or might but in Allah." Others said, "He deserves what he got because he was praying by the graves." I could not control myself, so I said to that particular person, "Who told you that we must not pray by the graves ? He answered, ' The Messenger of Allah (saw) prevented us from doing so." I replied angrily. You are lying about the Messenger of Allah." I became aware of the dangerous situation and feared that some of the visitors might call the soldier to attack me, so I said gently, if the Messenger of Allah prevented us from praying by the graves, why should millions of pilgrims and visitors disobey him and commit a sin by praying by the graves of the Prophet (saw), Abu Bakr and Umar in the Holy Mosque of the Prophet and in many other mosques around the Islamic world.

The professor was definitely not a leftist and gave me a 99% on the paper (took a point off from some grammatical errors). He said he enjoyed the paper asked if he could keep a copy of the paper for himself ... I was very honored.

Thank you for the kind words, everyone. They are much appreciated! I'm currently working on a follow-up essay that continues where this one left off (I was rushed in writing this as it was due the next day for Hum-160 class). I'll definitely make sure to post it on this forum when it's ready.

I wrote this a couple weeks ago. Hope you find it interesting. I think it's important to know who we're fighting in this war against terrorism and that the Saudi's are really nothing close to an ally

Thanks for the input, guys! Looks like I totally f'ed that article up (I'll admit, I am nothing close to a theologian and it showed). I think I'll scrap this one for sure. Once again, thanks for the discussion and input.

lol, true true

Very interesting article looking at the differences between the two role model figures.