What is the response to the claim that the people of Saudi Arabia are Wahhabis

Question:
How do you, Your Eminence, respond to those who say: The people of Saudi Arabia are Wahhabis? Do we acknowledge this name? Is Wahhabism a school of thought that contradicts the school of the people of the Sunnah and the community?

Answer:
This description was applied to them by their opponents who did not know the truth of what they are upon, or who knew it but ignored it for other reasons, for worldly reasons, and for other political reasons. They are the followers of the Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on him); because the Shaykh Muhammad (may Allah have mercy on him) launched the call in the middle of the twelfth century, the call to the oneness of Allah, when he saw that the people of Najd had fallen into associating partners with Allah, the worship of graves, calling for aid from their inhabitants, trees, and stones. Allah guided him and opened his heart, so he called them to Allah, guided them, and authored good works. Scholars from among the scholars of Najd and other scholars abroad who knew what he was calling to supported him in this. He called to the oneness of Allah, sincerity to Him, and abandoning the worship of idols, statues, graves, and the like. So his followers were labeled Wahhabis; his opponents and enemies, or the ignorant who did not know what they were upon, labeled them so.
The reality of the Shaykh Muhammad's call is a Salafi call, the call to the oneness of Allah and following the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). It is the call to what the people of the Sunnah and the community are upon. It is the call to the creed of the righteous predecessors, which is the oneness of Allah, sincerity to Him, following His Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and proceeding upon the methodology of the righteous predecessors. This is the call of the Shaykh Muhammad. He does not have a specific school of thought; his call is the call of the Imams of the predecessors regarding what the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) were upon.
He does not have a false religion, nor does he have a call that contradicts the consensus of the Ummah. But his opponents and enemies who were ignorant of his call, or ignored it, or confused people about it, and the ignorant who knew about it; they named them with this title: Wahhabis; to deter people from them and to warn against following what they are upon of truth and guidance.
So it is incumbent upon whoever knows this to be discerning, to make people see clearly, and to inform them that Wahhabism is not a fifth school of thought, nor a new religion, but rather it is a call to the oneness of Allah, and to what the righteous predecessors, the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and those who followed them with excellence, were upon. It is the call to the oneness of Allah, sincerity to Him, and following His Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Nothing else. This is the reality, but some people may have been ignorant of it, or they followed those who were ignorant of it. And Allah is the One to be sought for help.