What was the Wahhabi movement?

Answer 1

Wahhabism is a very conservative branch of Islam. It's different from mainstream Islam, and is often referred to as ultra-conservative, radical, and puritanical. Its interpretations of the Qur'an are much different than that of many Muslims, and the beliefs of Wahhabism enables its followers to label non-followers (both Muslims and non-Muslims) as dissenters.

Answer 2

Wahhabi is a reference, usually seen as a derisive label, for a member of the Sunni Salafist movement of Islam. It was founded by Arabian Sunni Hanbali Cleric Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (محمد بن عبد الوهاب‎) in the 1700s and it is from Wahhab's name that the word "Wahhabi" comes. Wahhab's argument was that the current trajectory of Fiqh or Islamic Jurisprudence was too accomodationalist to foreign influences, both from domestic cultural inputs and from pressure coming from Non-Islamic countries. As a result, Wahhab sought to reform Islam and implement the version of the religion as it existed in the early period of the Islamic Caliphates. The word Salafist in Arabic refers to "Salaf" (سلف) a term connoting the most pious generations of the early Muslims.

Unfortunately, many of the decisions in Fiqh between the early period of Islam and the present have been to soften Islamic commands. As a result, the Salafists tend to be much more conservative in their application of Islamic Law. Alcohol is completely banned, adulterers were to be stoned, women are to be covered, etc. For much of the next two centuries, Salafism remained confined to the Arabian peninsula. However, in the 1960s and onwards, the oil revenues in Saudi Arabia allowed the country to export the ideology, by funding thousands of mosques in other countries that would have Salafist Imams, by hosting millions of foreign Muslim guest-workers who would be introduced to Salafism in Saudi Arabia and bring it home with them, by actively supporting Muslim proselytizers around the world, and by providing financial support to Salafist Islamist and Jihadist organizations -- Jihadism is a political manifestation which is derivative of Salafism itself.

A number of Muslims prefer to blame Wahhabism or Salafism for the problems of the Islamic World and while it is a more accurate answer than blaming Zionism or Israel, it does not cover the vast range of trigger-hair issues that populate the Islamic World and are operating in tandem with Salafism.

Answer 3

A Wahabi is another term for a Wahhabi, a member of a puritanical reform extremist group in Islam which started in 18th century Arabia.