P&P Live!: Krithika Varagur - The Call: Inside the Global Saudi Religious Project — in conversation with James Palmer

An Indonesia correspondent for The Guardian, Varagur draws on her extensive experience reporting from Southeast and South Asia, along with interviews, government records, and historical research, to tell the story of Saudi influence. Using its oil wealth to mount an ambitious da’wa—call to Islam—the Saudi government has spent billions of dollars to propagate its brand of conservative Islam worldwide, often doing so with United States support. Varagur tracked the results of this ambitious campaign from Nigeria to Indonesia to Kosovo, and finds that it’s had broad and uniform effect, especially in sowing intolerance for religious minorities and fueling the rise of Saudi-educated clerics. 

Varagur will be in conversation with James Palmer, senior editor at Foreign Policy.