Brief History about Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is a country in transition—slowly but steadily changing

from within and increasingly flexing its muscle and influence

regionally. The country has entered the new century as a pivotal

regional power: The birthplace of Islam, it remains an important moral

leader of the Muslim world, particularly the Arab arena; its response to

domestic terrorism has shown that the monarchy has the drive to confront

destabilizing elements within its borders; and the increasing value

of its oil has provided financial and political security at home.

However, Saudi Arabia still faces the challenges of unemployment

for many of its citizens and an education system that makes it difficult

for Saudi youth to compete in the global market, both factors that

helped to inflame religious sensibilities against the royal family and its

patron, the United States. Showing a new assertiveness, the royal family

has just embarked on an ambitious program to reform the country’s

religious institutions and directly confront politically radicalized religious

activists and militants.

In the eyes of many Saudis, the United States is an internal player

that helps sustain the harsh status quo. The anti-American rhetoric

by the religious hard-liners masks a more practical agenda—toppling

the pro-Western monarchy that is seen to have forfeited its mandate

as a guardian of the ethos of Islam. Both the hard-liners’ rhetoric and

their agenda resonate with alienated Saudi youths (burdened with high

unemployment and indoctrinated by an ultraconservative religious

establishment) who readily accept Washington’s culpability in perpetuating

their predicament. This was brought into sharper relief on

September 11, 2001.

The fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers involved in the 9/11 attacks

were from Saudi Arabia—and that some financing and planning for the

attacks allegedly occurred on Saudi soil—brought outrage and recrimination

against the conservative kingdom by U.S. opinion makers and

serious accusations about its alleged role in financing militancy and

terrorism. Critics of the royal family accused the kingdom of financing

and harboring terrorists and advocated a dramatic shift in U.S.

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