Wahhabism Dysfunctions and bin Salman Deepening Gap with Saudi Arabia's Wahhabists

The presence of Muhammad ibn Salman as Crown Prince and his extensive reforms have profoundly changed the Saudi system and posed major threats to the position of the great Wahhabi scholars. For this reason, this article is an attempt to answer the question: what changes the position of traditional Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia has changed since Muhammad bin Salman took office. The authors' hypothesis emphasizes that the gap between him and the Wahhabis has deepened since bin Salman took office. The research method of the descriptive analytical article and the findings of the article based on Sprages's research theory represent four macro stages. First; Traditional Wahhabism and its conservative ideologues are Saudi Arabia's great problem for developing and following the example of the West. In the second stage, Ibn Salman believes that the scope of authority of Wahhabi scholars, religious context and the lack of presence of intellectual classes and supporters of reformist ideas are the causes and factors of these problems. In the stage of drawing the utopia, Ibn Salman believes that secularism and personalization of religion should be realized in Saudi Arabia, the gradual cessation of Wahhabism and fundamentalism should not be exported to the countries of the region, and Saudi secularism should be modeled for the Arabs in the Middle East. It must significantly reduce the powers of the great Wahhabi scholars, revive women's rights, diminish religious and Islamic values, form a new class of pro-Western intellectuals, and gradually remove Wahhabi teachings from the Saudi education system