Terrorism in Europe Linked to Saudi Arabia’s ‘Brand of Islam,’ Former U.K. Ambassador Says
Saudi Arabia is supporting global extremism by pushing its ultra-conservative religious views in mosques around the world, according to the U.K.’s former ambassador to the oil-rich kingdom. William Patey, who served as London’s envoy to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 2006 to 2010, spoke out Thursday, one day after the U.K. released only a brief summary of a Home Office report on domestic extremism that is widely believed to expose links between Saudi Arabia and support for radical Islamist ideologies in the U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and Home Secretary Amber Rudd have refused to publish the report in full, citing its classified nature, and have been accused of protecting Saudi Arabia, a political and defense ally of the U.K. While Patey said he did not believe that Saudi Arabia was directly involved in financing groups designated as terrorist organizations by the U.K., he said its promotion of a hard-line branch of Sunni Islam known as Salafism or, more specifically, Wahhabi