The stability of Saudi Arabia in the months and years immediately ahead is, of course, of the greatest concern to all us, and FWers might be interested in an informative article in today's FT. I will only extract the first few, fairly self-contained, paragraphs here but if any want to read the whole article I will be delighted to post it here:
<<<< WINDS OF CHANGE Roula Khalaf In the aftermath of September 11, Saudi Arabia's rulers are facing pressure to initiate social, political and economic reforms, and ease the country's strict Islamic rules. ---- Mohsen al-Awaji is known in Saudi Arabia as an Islamic reformer. A soil engineer and lawyer well versed in sharia, or Islamic law, he has been in opposition to the regime since 1990, when, as part of a group of clerics and intellectuals, he took advantage of the Gulf War crisis and dared to petition the government for political reforms. By the mid-1990s, he had lost his job at a state university. He spent five years in jail. But Mr al-Awaji is now suddenly tolerated by the state. His passport, taken 10 years ago, has been returned. He holds private meetings with senior princes. He owes the opportunity to the attacks of September 11, which exposed a far more dangerous threat to the Saudi authorities -- the group of extremist clerics who supported the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden and warned the royal family against supporting the US in its anti-terror campaign. "The government reacts positively to us during times of crisis," explains Mr al-Awaji. The d�tente, he admits, may not last long, but "for now the government wants us to be the mediators between the official clerics and the extremists." The shock of the September 11 attacks, perpetrated by a group of mostly Saudis, was followed by a period of denial in the strategically important kingdom, the world's largest oil producer. Saudis refused to believe that Muslims were behind the atrocities and, driven by anti-US sentiment, voiced support for Mr bin Laden. The government, too, sought to avoid addressing a dangerous and embarrassing problem. But denial is painfully giving way to introspection. Allowing Mr al-Awaji and other opposition clerics some room to manoeuvre is part of a broader strategy that aims to weaken the appeal of radical clerics. Islamic reformers such as Mr al-Awaji are as critical of the US as the extremists, but for political rather than ideological reasons. They view the US support for Israel, to which they are passionately hostile, unjustified. And they want the government to have the capability to protect itself rather than depend on America. But they advocate non-violent means to achieve change. . . . . <<<< It is to be hoped that unless the joint- and real-Presidents of America -- Messrs Cheney, Bush Senior and Rumsfeld -- take advice and try to remedy the schism of Israel and Palestine as soon as possible, then it's highly likely, despite the supremacy of American military might, that a wider conflagration will ensue in the Middle East for years which even the US won't be able to dampen down and which, among other things, will plunge oil import-dependent America into even deeper economic trouble. And the rest of us also. Keith Hudson __________________________________________________________ �Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in order to discover if they have something to say.� John D. Barrow _________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________
