Its name derives from source of the funding, petroleum exports, that spread it through the Muslim world after the Yom Kippur War.[2][9][10] The term is sometimes called "pejorative"[11] or a "nickname".[9]
According to Sandra Mackey the term was coined by Fouad Ajami.[12][13] It has been used by French political scientist Gilles Kepel,[14] Bangladeshi scholar Imtiyaz Ahmed,[15] and Egyptian philosopher Fouad Zakariyya,[16] among others.
^ abKepel, Gilles (2006). Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. I.B. Tauris. p. 51. ISBN9781845112578. Well before the full emergence of Islamism in the 1970s, a growing constituency nicknamed `petro-Islam` included Wahhabi ulemas and Islamist intellectuals and promoted strict implementation of the sharia in the political, moral and cultural spheres; this proto-movement had few social concerns and even fewer revolutionary ones.
^Ajami, Fouad (7 January 2007). "With Us or Against Us". New York Times. before Petro-Islam and the Wahhabis blew in with new money and a new interpretation of the faith. The madrassas had not yet played havoc with the educational system.
^Cite error: The named reference Kepel73 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference dw-hijab was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Abu-Rabi?, Ibrahim M. (1996). Intellectual Origins of Islamic Resurgence in the Modern Arab World. NY: SUNY Press. p. 48. ISBN9780791426630. [quoting Fouad Zakariyya ("a secular democratic thinker")]`A specific type of Islam has been gathering momentum of late, and the appropriate name that applies to it is `Petro-Islam.` The first and last goal of `Petro-Islam` has been to protect the petroleum wealth or, more correctly, the types of social relations underlying those [tribal] societies that possess the lion's share of this wealth. It is common knowledge that the principle of the `few dominating the largest portion of this wealth` permeates the social structure [of the Gulf region]. ... these petro-Islamites are exploiting the religious sensitivities of the masses for the purpose of `spreading a unique brand of Islam never seen before in history; the Islam of the veil, beard, and the Jilbab; the Islam that permits the stoppage of work during prayers' time, and prohibits women from driving automobiles.`