Saudi petrodollars funded Islamist networks globally through Islamic banks

Evidence

While the World Muslim League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference were the political means for establishing Saudi hegemony, the Islamic financial system laid the economic basis for the growth of Islamism. Under Saudi guidance, the vast amounts of money pouring into Arab oil-exporting countries in the early 1970s were directed into a network of banks that were under the control of the Islamic right and the Muslim Brotherhood. These banks then funded sympathetic politicians and parties, media companies, and the business ventures of the devout middle class. They also financed Muslim Brotherhood operations in Egypt, Kuwait, Pakistan, Turkey, and Jordan. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 240

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Saudi and Qatari states fund unofficial fatwa platforms that dominate global online influence. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1941