Wahhab seems to have understood the tremendous power of hatred to unite and inflame its followers in an intensely determined war against its declared enemies. He urged all Muslims to mercilessly exterminate infidels, blasphemers, idol worshippers and Christians and even Muslim apostates like the Shias and Sufis even though the loving Sufi philosophy had been the main agent for conversions to Islam. Wahhabis believed that a secret `Imam’ would miraculously appear to lead them to victory over these infidels. Jihad was only now declared to be a holy war where followers were asked to blindly do their duty with the absolute assurance that Allah and his angels would make them successful with the joys of paradise guaranteed to any who fell as martyrs to the cause. Although they considered all innovations to be heretical the lust for violence soon overcame their inhibitions about guns and they were soon adept at using the latest weapons and technologies of communications.
The seeds of Islamic hatred went back a long way. In its 800 years of glory the followers of Islam had reason to consider themselves as the greatest people on earth. They had liberated women and slaves from many oppressive mediaeval customs, invented algebra, rediscovered the philosophies of Aristotle and Plato and promoted early science at a time when Europe was still in a dark age. Islam had lived peacefully with Jews and Christians in all their kingdoms. Its first defeat was at the hands of the pagan Mongols including the slaughter of 92,000 Muslims at Baghdad in 1258. But Islam not only survived but converted these rough conquerors willingly to its faith. The turning point was the defeat of the Ottoman Turks outside Vienna in 1663 after which the ascendancy of the Christian nations of Europe quickly made them the masters of the world. As in all civilizations the losers blamed their failures as retributions for deviating from the true path and rabid preachers had a fertile field of anger and frustration where they could cultivate their bitter creeds.
