Russia’s recent military strikes in Syria have inflamed the anger and imagination of Saudi religious scholars.

A consortium of 55 prominent Salafi scholars recently signed a letter titled “Petition of Saudi Ulama With Regard to Russian Aggression on Syria” and posted it on hard-line Salafi scholar Nasir al-Omar’s Web page, al-Moslim. This is not the first time Saudi scholars have addressed the wider regional turmoil and called for solidarity in support of rebels they deem virtuous, Islamic and worthy of transnational Muslim encouragement. Saudi ulama are notorious for inflaming the imaginations of the young when it comes to hot spots they believe are in need of jihad, from Afghanistan in the 1980s to Iraq in 2003 and now in Syria. However, despite their image as dogmatic Wahhabi scholars, they have proven themselves to be as pragmatic as any political entrepreneur.

There is no doubt that in the mind of the 55 signatories of the petition, both the United States and Russia are equally infidel nations and governments. The United States, in the scholars' opinion, has denied Syrian rebels free no-fly zones and refused to bomb the Syrian regime. Yet, when NATO bombed Libya to depose Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, the majority of the Saudi ulama were cheerful. Their objective was to see an Islamist government replace Gadhafi, even if it involved inviting NATO to bomb a Muslim nation. Their logic centers on a simple formula. Both Gadhafi and NATO were infidel powers, and if NATO could depose the Libyan dictator, thus paving the way for the righteous Muslim government, there was no problem from their theological perspective. In fact, they can justify their positions by twisting a couple of religious texts and calling upon God to bring war between two unjust and infidel parties so that a Muslim nation emerges triumphant. In other words, let the infidels — a category that also includes many Arabs — fight it out among themselves so that a window of opportunity presents itself to the pious Sunni nation.

Had the United States taken it upon itself to bomb Assad rather than the Islamic State, Saudi ulama would have been less critical of the United States. They would have rejoiced over Americans, pejoratively called people of the cross, destroying the Syrian regime, as neither is to be trusted. But the United States missed an opportunity to endear itself, albeit momentarily, to a whole section of Saudi religious scholars. Today their wrath is directed against Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church, as both are believed to be launching a crusade akin to action taken by the United States during the war in Iraq in 2003.