Carter Says US Counting on Saudi Arabia to Promote ‘Decency’ in Islam

The United States is counting on Saudi Arabia to be a voice of "decency" in the Middle East, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter told a group of military and business leaders on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — That role, Carter said, is something that Americans cannot really address in the way that Muslim-majority countries can.

“The Saudis have a special role to play… in the ideological dimension” of the war against Daesh, Carter stated. “We’re counting on them to speak up for moderation and decency.”

Saudi Arabia’s state religion is a deeply conservative version of Sunni Islam, known as Wahhabism or Salafism, which many experts consider the foundation for the violent terrorist ideology later developed by terrorist groups like Daesh and al-Qaeda.

Saudi-funded mosques and Saudi preachers throughout the world have spread the Wahhabi ideology, which is inherently hostile to Western values, such as for women, respect for human rights and the embrace of representative democracy, according to numerous experts.