By the time the new ruler of Hijaz convened a Muslim congress in Mecca in the summer of 1926, Rida was receiving funds from him. The congress represented Ibn Saud’s bid to join the Muslim mainstream and to erase the reputation of extreme sectarianism associated with the Ikhwan. But the question of Wahhabi intolerance emerged as a problem when an Egyptian delegate reported harassment for uttering a phrase abhorrent to the mission’s ulama. Rashid Rida’s treatise, "The Wahhabis and Hijaz", set forth the case for the Saudi-Wahhabi side in the battle for Hijaz. Rida wrote that if the Wahhabi incursion into Hijaz had taken place in the Ottoman era, the Islamic world would have been furious. Newspapers across the breadth of the Muslim world would have condemned the Wahhabis as infidels and financial contributions to fight them would have been gathered. After all, Muslims across the world had held a favourable view of the Ottomans and a dim view of the Wahhabis. But things were different now. The Wahhabis were known for pious adherence to religion and hostility to foreign influence. Their adversary Sharif Husayn was notorious for plotting with Islam’s enemies for the sake of his ambition to gain the caliphate. Defending "Najdi Da'wa", Rida cited "Tarikh Najd" , a treatise composed by Ibn Abd al Wahhab’s son Abd Allah.