Channel four documentary Undercover Mosque gave a frightening insight into the extremist form of Islam called Wahhabism.

The programme showed preachers encouraging violence against non-Muslims, girls who won't wear the hijab and homosexuals.

Preachers from Saudi Arabia (where Wahhabism is prevalent) deliver speeches over the Internet and take part in question and answer sessions where Fatwas are issued on various issues. DVD recordings of these preachers are sold throughout the community.

Many of the most extreme preachers were young and flamboyant, they reminded me of the Christians from Evangelical churches in the US Bible Belt. One stated that parents should teach their children to love Jihad:

"Put in their soft tender hear the zeal of jihad and the love of martyrdom."

Another preacher told his congregation that AIDS was a Christian Plot, deliberately planted in Africa.

Although many DVDs of the preachers are sold, much of the literature we are told comes free, from Saudi Arabia. And the literature is definitely not a modern or typical reading of Islam. It is Wahhabism and is anti-Christian, Jew, homosexual, and sexual equality.

What was continually amazing about this documentary was the closeness of the Saudi Political and Religious mainstream to this extremist preaching. One of the speakers was a Saudi Diplomat, with diplomatic immunity. All of the preachers had trained or studied in Saudi Arabia, and all were looking to enforce a strict Wahhabist form of Islam on the UK, looking to "take over". Wahhabism, it seems, will bring down west.

The UKIM (UK Islamic Mission) was praised by Tony Blair as part of his PR drive to appear less Islamophobic. This would seem to have backfired as the UKIM (in this documentary as least) seemed to preach intolerance and everything Blair would claim to be fighting in his war on terror (although they claimed that preachers had booked their premises privately, and that it was not their opinions being preached).

This documentary tells us that some Muslims in the UK and Worldwide have fundamentalist beliefs that are abhorrent to the average westerner. But we already new that. Yes, the footage was shocking but it was old news. Apart from one aspect:

That major UK and USA war on terror ally Saudi Arabia is at the forefront of this extremist preaching. That for all the talk of madrassas in Pakistan where the London bombers allegedly studied, and Al Qaeda apparently hiding in the hills on the Afghan Border, and Hamas in Palestine, Saudi Arabia is at the heart. So what on earth are Blair and Bush doing? Saudi Arabia is a major ally, the west arm them and support their regime. We let them invest heavily in our industries, we are in effect in their pockets. The west's current foreign policy is completely unfathomable.

One more point on the documentary. There was very little of the majority, moderate UK Muslim voice. That, Channel 4, was unforgivable. Or an attempt to understand why fundamentalist Islam flourishes in the current political environment.