By Christina Sowder, contributing writer
The future safety and economic security of this country depends on us becoming energy independent. What most people don’t understand about the urgency of this is the fact that Saudi Arabia is the number one backer of Al Qaeda.
Wahhabism, the religious beliefs that are held by radical Islam, were founded by Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab in the 1700s. He perverted the Muslim religion, and built up enough power to control Bedouin tribes by force, using massacres to terrify tribes to convert to Wahhabism. The killing was obscene, where men, women, and children were butchered in ways only the most twisted serial killer could fantasize about.
After a couple hundred years, this extremist belief became the main religion in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudis hide the fundamentalist beliefs from the western world, playing nice with other countries to make money off oil sales, some of which the government donates to extremist organizations. The Chechen government’s special envoy to Europe, Hajj Salih Brandt, stated that Wahhabism Fundamentalism is:
“A deviation of Islam taught in Madinah University in Saudi Arabia, sponsored by the Saudi government and exported from there…out of it has come Hamas, the Taliban, Osama Bin Laden the FIS (Islamic Salvation Front), Sudan, and now gangs roaming Chechnya and Daghestan.”
The funding for these extremist organizations comes mainly from Saudi Arabia. We need to take away the power that money provides by reducing our dependency on oil from foreign countries. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were originally from Saudi Arabia. The non-pilot hijackers that completed their training returned to Saudi Arabia to obtain new passports and visas before heading to the U.S. Is this what we want? To purchase our oil from a country that teaches their children Wahhabism? They are taking our money, which we used to purchase their oil, and fund terrorist groups, such as Hamas and the Taliban.
In December 2001, a Riyadh doctor named Sahr Muhammad Hatem wrote a letter to a London-based newspaper. In the letter she stated:
“The mentality of each one of us was programmed upon entering school as a child (to believe) that… anyone who is not a Muslim is our enemy, and that the West means enfeeblement, licentiousness, lack of values, and even Jahiliya (a term used to describe the backward, pre-Islamic era) itself. Anyone who escapes this programming in school encounters it at the mosque, or through the media or from the preachers lurking in every corner… We all focus on Bin Laden and his ilk…but we have yet to focus on the more dangerous people, and I mean those who fill our heads with this rhetoric in the schools, the mosques, and the media, who disseminate words without hesitation, without considering the consequences or even understanding that in this era, the entire world hears what is said.”
Using our own natural resources will not only make us more independent, it will boost our economy with exports and weaken the terrorist groups by drastically reducing their funding, which in turn will increase our national security. As educated, voting citizens we have the power to make the necessary changes.
In November of 2010, we must elect the right people to ensure we change national policy in a way that will allow us to tap into our natural resources and to stop the out-of-control frivolous spending our government is doing. On February 5, 2010, the government raised our debt ceiling by $1.9 trillion, bringing it to $14.3 trillion, which is weakening the dollar. With our currency weakened, companies will still lay off employees to try to stay afloat, causing more and more people to collect unemployment and lose health benefits.
Let’s put our own people to work – by giving them jobs drilling, refining, and transporting oil. We cannot rely on other countries to supply us with critical resources. As a child, my father taught me that I couldn’t rely on anyone to take care of me but me. My brother and I learned to work for everything we have, and to take hand-outs from no one. As a result, we both have careers, homes we can afford, families, and savings for our future. Our country needs to behave in the same manner as a whole. We cannot rely on others to help us (stop buying our debt, China), nor should we buy goods elsewhere when we have them here at home. So, let’s cut back corporate taxes, roll up our sleeves, and get drilling.