Investigators hunting members of Osama bin Laden's network have discovered that all the suspected terrorists arrested in Europe over the past ten months follow an extreme Salafi interpretation of Islam, according to a source close to the investigation and a detailed intelligence assessment seen by the Guardian newspaper.
A document found by the FBI in the luggage of one of the Sept. 11 hijackers also suggests Salafi influence.
Salafis not only take the Koran literally but seek to revert to an ancient and "pure" form of Islam. Although most are ultra-conservative, there is a militant wing to which bin Laden and his followers belong.
The link between Salafis and bin Laden's terrorist web will prove acutely embarrassing to Saudi Arabia, whose royal family has invested huge sums in spreading Salafi thought abroad. The leading center for the study and export of Salafi ideas is the Islamic University of Medina, in Saudi Arabia, which was founded by the king in 1961 "to convey the eternal message of Islam to the entire world."
Investigators in at least nine European countries are working against the clock to track down suspected members of cells sponsored by al-Qaeda have found a Salafi connection in every case.
Since December four interlinked groups have been identified and, at least partly, dismantled in addition to the Hamburg cell allegedly involved in the attacks on New York and Washington last month.
Three of these groups, based in Germany, Italy and Spain, are believed by investigators to belong to an extremist Algerian movement, the Salafist Preaching and Combat Group.
"In reality, it has been absorbed by al-Qaeda," a source close to the investigation said.
A document found by the FBI in the luggage of Mohamed Atta -- thought to be the leader of the Sept. 11 hijackers -- includes the hallmarks of a radical Salafi tract, according to religious experts.
Unlike the writing of most other extreme Islamist groups, it contains no mention at all of modern politics. Instead, there are copious quotations from the Koran -- 19 in the space of four pages.
There are also characteristic references to the "forefathers" -- the first three generations of Muslims -- whom Salafis seek to emulate. Advising the hijackers on how to dress for their attacks, it says: "Tie your clothes around you in the same way our good forefathers had done before you."
The Islamic University of Medina has long been known as a recruiting ground for fighters, despite periodic clampdowns.
Formal teaching is of the ultra-conservative kind approved by the Saudi royals but the problem is what happens outside the classrooms, according to former students.
Ibrahim (not his real name) is a British Muslim who attended the university. "It has to be seen to be promoting orthodox Islam," he said. "But there's a lot of shoulder-rubbing and people go on to develop their own ideas. Students meet people who speak with passion and fire, and eat squatting on mud floors."
For some, this has a radicalizing effect as they become aware of a huge contradiction between the simple lives of the early Muslims and those of the Saudi elite who sponsor the university.
Another problem, a former diplomat in Saudi Arabia says, is that many of Medina's graduates are virtually unemployable except as religious teachers. "Some can't find jobs and drift into bin Laden circles."
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