Daily Alert Archives

Under Pressure to Change, Saudis Debate Their Future

(New York Times) - Neil MacFarquhar The struggle over the future of Saudi Arabia is on. The idea of reshaping the kingdom's religious and tribal form of monarchy remains tentative, more vague public discussion than concrete plan. Mansour al-Nogaidan, a former zealot turned reformer, was the first columnist to suggest publicly that the extreme lessons within the Wahhabi sect about shunning foreigners helped terrorists to justify their attacks. That column and subsequent ones created such an uproar that Mr. Nogaidan's writing was suspended for a couple of months, and this summer he found himself summoned by a conservative judge who he said sentenced him to 75 lashes. The sentence has not been carried out. Mr. Nogaidan and others believe that while the government has recognized the problem, it has not done enough to get at its roots. Conservative prayer leaders may be inveighing against extremism, for example, but they rarely single out Osama bin Laden or al-Qaeda by name.
2003-11-24 00:00:00
Full Article