Why is it important to discuss Islamist financing? Why on earth would it not be important? The ramifications from the fact that the overwhelming proportion of funding for Islamist groups and individuals comes from the Khaleej, are massive.
First of all, this impacts the quality and diversity of the discourse of Political Islam. People who are intellectual mediocrities can easily rise to prominence simply on the basis of their ability to be obsequious and sycophantic parrots for the ideas of their sponsors. They may be able to count on one hand the number of books they have read in their lives, but they are presented as, promoted as, and received as great minds. They are little more than sloganeers and demagogues; but they are treated seriously by the circles of Islamist thought because they are sponsored by rich and important men whom no one wants to offend. And this is something that happens across the spectrum, from so-called moderates to trigger-happy jihadis.
Furthermore, as I have written before, the Khaleeji financiers are not going to fund organizations or individuals whose interpretation of Islam differs from their own. Through the use of funding, they stifle original thinking. And there is no correlation between having money and having a sound understanding. In other words, who is to say that the religious interpretation or political understanding of a rich Gulf Arab is even correct or not? Yet, he is in a position to decide what interpretation and which ideas are most heavily broadcast. They have the ability to change the thinking of masses of people, even though it may often be the case that their own ideas and understanding are the most in need of being changed.
And yes, personally, I have a problem with someone being a “professional Islamist”. Why? Because most of us do not have that privilege. For the rest of us, we have to adapt our ideology to the circumstances of real life. If you are being taken care of by a Gulf shaykh, you are, frankly, living in a bubble. You can tell people about how much they should be willing to sacrifice for the Sake of Allah, how much they should commit themselves to Political Islam, and how important it is for them to make Hijrah or Jihad, or what have you; because, quite simply, you are not dealing with the same set of realities they are dealing with. You have been able to successfully monetize your commitment to Islam, you have patronage that allows you to dedicate all your time to preaching and so forth; the rest of us have to work for a living.
Finally, we have to look at what has actually happened with Islamism since it became dependent on the wealth of the Gulf. It has become increasingly extremist and narrow-minded, increasingly delusional, utopian, impractical and divorced from anything resembling genuine political, economic or social understanding. Imagine, we have more Islamist political parties today than we have ever had before, yet almost not a single one, if any, has ever articulated its policy platform of any kind.
Yes, this is a very important issue. And anyone who sincerely believes in and cares about the project of Political Islam should be immensely concerned about trying to develop ways to circumvent the dominating influence of Gulf money.