I think people generally need to distinguish Wahhabism from other forms of Islam. It's pretty shocking that most people are not aware of the difference. Wahhabism escapes a lot of persecution because of the Wests ties to Saudi Arabia, but the reality is that almost all violent extreme Islam is Wahhabism. ISIS, Taliban, Al-Quaeda are all practitioners of an extreme Wahhabism (which is of itself a very severe form of Sunni Islam). The reality is that the number one threat radical and militant Islam poses is not on the West, but on other Muslims. More Shi'a Islams are killed due to Wahhabism than Christians or Jews or anyone else. Wahhabism is typically very sever in its punishments, enforces a violent jihad of the sword, is strict on separation of the sexes, and above all is aggressively monotheistic.
It is this specific branch of Islam, combined with Western medias reinforcement of Orientalism, that makes Islam such a heated topic. By in large most of the world practices Islam peacefully. From most Muslims I have talked to (primarily from Indonesia), they talk about the Quran as a more poetic guidelines to how one should try and live. It's not a book of evil. I think any kind of media effects based argument on books is pointless. Catcher in the Rye didn't kill Lennon, a nutter did. Extremists and terrorists don't read the Quran and decide to "kill the infidels" - if that were the case then why haven't we seen 500 years of it? The people who hijacked the flight on 9/11 didn't read the Quran and decide to kill people, they were indoctrinated by Al-Qaueda.
No, the complicated political structure of terrorist organizations are very self serving and they are tyrannical. They prey on people who are often feeling marginalized within Western society, or people who live in conditions which have undergone 150 years of conflict, war and dictatorships. It's not at all surprising that extremists would exist in nations which have simply lived through a very harsh period of history, and I think religion is just used by these organizations as another means of control. It's not so difference to The People's Temple of the Disciples of Christ - which instructed a lot of vulnerable people to kill themselves in the Jonestown Massacre.
I wasn't aware you could read Arabic.
From studying English interpretations of the Quran (only in my undergrad granted, I'm hardly a scholar) - I think Wahhabism is very removed from any intended purpose. As an example many people use this quote as a justification of Islam as a violent religion 'And slay them where ever you may come upon them, and drive them away from where ever they drove you away". However they omit the following verse "for oppression is even worse than killing". Now firstly this means that violence is a means of retaliation - but secondly condemns oppressing as an act worse than violence. Now does Wahhabism sound like it is taking a literal interpretation of Islam? Or does it in fact oppress? Slay in that verse is conditional as well, as the Quran states "do not attack them if they do not attack you first. Allah loves not the aggressor".
Furthermore the Quran forbids Muslims from disputing with people from an earlier revelation (Christians or Jews). The following suruh urges religious tolerance:
"Say: "O you who deny the truth!
I do not worship that which you worship.
And neither do you worship that which I worship..
Unto you, your religion, and unto me, mine!".
Again Wahhabisms very selective and aggressive interpretations of Islam disregard this entirely - with laws which persecute other religions. So often the Quran is quoted and taken at face value, but the context is so often very misleading - especially when it is then applied as a 'fundamental context of its reading'. We could do the same with Christianity in the Old Testement:
"Moses, Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp.Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who returned from the battle. "Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them. "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the Lord's people. Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man" (Numbers 31:7-18). Now I assume Christians don't read the old testament and believe that they can kill those that don't believe or disobey god - and rape women.
