The Call: Inside the Global Saudi Religious Project

Got my copy after listening to an intriguing book talk featuring the author. I don’t even normally read much nonfiction but trust me this was worth the read and some of the journeys this author has been on in the process were so interesting to hear about. A real page turner regardless of your background knowledge (or in my case, lack of knowledge) on the subject. Couldn’t put it down.

I found my knowledge of global affairs, and in particular religion and politics, was greatly expanded after reading this very intriguing book, “The Call: Inside the Global Saudi Religious Project” by a brilliant award-winning Harvard educated journalist, Krithika Varagur. In my opinion, her book is highly engrossing and loaded with a diversity of excellent research and innovative journalist reporting.The author explains her book “covers the six-decade history of the Saudi soft power campaign, forged through personal relationships and billions of oil dollars, its initial goals and how it went awry and ended up fuelling terrorism, extremism, and intolerance.” If you want to know what is really going on in Saudi current affairs, and counterterrorism, extremism, the Middle East, and more, you will, as I did, find this comprehensive book extremely fascinating.The author, a Fulbright scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, is not only highly intuitive but also very clear and precise in documenting and reporting on her personal interviews and discoveries on the world of Saudi money and how it is distributed and used to support Wahhabism, the official religion of Saudi Arabia.In my opinion, this is a comprehensive and captivating book and, focuses on how Saudi money is exactly spread in three major Islamic countries of Malaysia, Nigeria, and Kosovo to support the official religion of Saudi Arabia. I felt this author boldly and irrefutably reveals how Saudi money is spread through these countries by building Mosques, boarding schools, Universities, the establishment of charities, providing scholarships for people who have since become very influential and prominent, and other revealing ways.The author worked on this brilliant report over two years and not only provides an excellent history of Islam but a brilliant forecast of what to expect in the years ahead. She reveals in detail how Saudi Arabi was the major force in Islam and how that is changing in an old but new way in present-day to other countries such as Turkey,“As seen in Kosovo and the greater Balkans, Turkey is the major new global Islamic power to watch in the next decade, with its bid for cultural and economic influence along with the territories of the former Ottoman Empire, but also even in places where it has no major historical connection. In the last fifteen years, Turkey’s trade with African countries has grown six-fold to $17.5 billion. There are now over forty Turkish embassies in Africa. Turkey’s largest overseas military base is in Mogadishu, Somalia, where there is also a Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital. There is a direct flight from Istanbul to Kano. Throughout the Balkans and now in Africa, Turkey positions itself as a more liberal Sunni alternative to Saudi Salafism and Iranian Shiism. Turkey is a new player in terms of modern global dawa, but from another angle, it’s a return to form: it was the Ottomans, after all, who were the custodians of the two holy mosques in Mecca and Medina for more than four hundred years.”All in all, I felt this book is excellent work and an excellent source of information and study and it is definitely not fake news in any way but a real hard and enlightening look at what happened and what is really happening in the world today. Very well done and highly recommended!It was my pleasure to be given a complimentary copy of this book but that does not in any way influence this review.

‘Follow the money’ is not only the most famous phrase in investigative journalism, it is a time-tested approach to uncovering and understanding the facts behind complex issues in business and politics. During my brief journalism career, I took part in one investigation and while the subject wasn’t particularly complicated, I remember well how intensive and difficult it was to track down and verify details, and the way those facts often created new leads to pursue.This lengthy intro is my way of saying just how impressive I found award-winning journalist Krithika Varagur’s The Call: Inside the Global Saudi Religious Project, a deeply reported examination of Saudi Arabia’s program to spread its ultra-conservative brand of Islam through charity, humanitarian aid, educational materials and scholarships, and construction projects. Her prose is clear and highly readable, and the information is presented cogently.After a brief introduction to establish necessary background, the author examines the influence of Saudi money in the nations of Nigeria, Indonesia and Kosovo. These geographically separated regions — West Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Balkans — not only demonstrate the scope of Saudi ambitions but also serve as a useful reminder that Islam isn’t a monolith: the faith in each region developed in distinct ways.The author interviews various leaders in the political and religious communities of each nation, and examines the various ways Saudi money, directly and indirectly, affected the local evolution of Islam. Of particular note, to me, was how international scrutiny of Saudi operations after 9/11 and internal terrorist attacks resulted in a significant curtailment of money into their various external programs. Even so, in the three nations studied the seeds planted had matured to the point where local leaders and organizations were ready and able to carry on without the support from Saudi Arabia.The Call is informative and timely, and there are plenty of reasons to study contemporary Saudi Arabia. The ongoing regional rivalry with Iran has the potential to develop into a direct conflict, for any number of reasons. Disturbing reports of the kingdom’s aggressive pursuit of nuclear technology, likely to maintain pace with Iran’s perceived ambitions. ISIS isn’t really gone. An ambitious, ruthless and relatively young crown prince consolidating power. Or, look to the future: what happens if the climate crisis forces a significant portion of the world to abandon fossil fuels?Be sure to include The Call in your syllabus.