Editor's Note:

The Saudi-American Forum would like to thank the Middle East Institute for permission to share this article with our readers.

There is a quiet revolution going on in Saudi Arabia.  No one knows its depth, its breadth or its ultimate impact, but the reform effort is very real and is probably unstoppable.  There was a note of caution sounded by government and business alike during my discussions in the Kingdom in December. King Faisal's reform effort and ultimate assassination were on people's minds and on their lips.  The Crown Prince made it clear to me that he was dealing with a traditional and strongly religious society. He did not want to follow the example of Kuwait where the government had to back away from a proposed reform in the face of parliamentary opposition.  He advocated one step forward at a time and none back.

Religious Reform

The core of the reform and its success or failure will depend on the Royal Family's unified efforts to define Islam and delegitimize its more extreme elements.  King Fahd made a publicized speech while I was in Riyadh to a body of high Islamic religious scholars.  He said: "scholars must highlight the dangers which extremism poses to the Muslim faith and conduct."  He called on the scholars to join hands to "correct the flaws in the thinking of some Muslims through dialogue in seminars, conferences and the media." He stressed that "deviant thinking" has led to terror in the Kingdom and said that there is a need for clear meanings for terms such as "jihad."  And among other more esoteric demands, the King told the scholars to devise religious arguments to annul "aberrant fatwas" which legitimized militancy and suicide bombings.

In and of itself, this was an extraordinary statement which threw down the gauntlet to those who advocated an extreme form of Islam, including al Qaeda. The King's statement appears to have the unified backing of the Royal Family and much of the population.  It is being backed up on the ground by a series of acts.  Over 2,000 Imams whose preaching advocated militancy have been removed from the pulpit and 1500 have been sent for reeducation or to jail.  In December two prominent Saudi Islamic militant imams publicly recanted their fatwas in which they had called for militancy. At the same time, there has been renewed vigor in tracking down militants and in cooperating with US authorities in the war on terrorism.

According to some Saudi businessmen the role of the religious police has been curtailed - there are fewer mutawwas on the streets and their behavior is less aggressive.  The process of curtailing the flow of cash to terrorist organizations has had the unfortunate side effect of substantially depressing all charitable giving.  The government has, according to these businessmen, removed the poor boxes from the streets in front of mosques. Individual giving has declined precipitously in the face of new controls and fears of funds being diverted or misdirected. Edicts have been put in place to track funding through charitable institutions.

A National Dialogue on Reform

The reform effort has been developing for some time in the mind of the Crown Prince.  But the real thrust seems to have come after the May terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia.  These attacks, and particularly the one against the Muslim compound this past fall, have brought the Royal Family, the businessmen and the average Saudi citizen together in opposition to the threat to the state, to moderation and to the tactic of terrorism. In June, the Crown Prince declared a reform initiative calling for self-reform and the development of political participation through a National Dialogue.  The Crown Prince told me that this effort included all elements of the society including Shiites and other sects of the Islamic faith.  He called this a process of the intellect to bring people together in consensus behind reform rather than a political process that tends to divide people on ideological lines.

Political Reform and Elections

In June 2003 the King granted the Majlis al-Shura (Consultative Council) the right to propose and debate, but not pass, new bills or proposed amendments to existing laws without the permission of the King. In October, the Saudi authorities announced that they would prepare for elections for half the members of each municipal council within one year.

The Media and Human Rights

In other areas, Saudi journalists established a trade association in February 2003, the first association of its kind. According to one prominent American journalist, there has been an improvement in the reporting of the Saudi press, which he attributed more to the competition of satellite TV stations like Al Jazeera and Al Arabia than to the Journalists Association. On human rights, in May 2002, the King approved establishment of an independent human rights organization but there has been little visible movement on this to date.  A criminal procedure law was passed in 2002 regulating the rights of defendants and suspects before the courts and police, but the terrorist threat and pressure from the US and from within, particularly on issues such as detention without trial and access to a lawyer, where the US example is mixed, may have short-circuited implementation of these reforms.

Economic Reform

Economic reforms have been driven by the Saudi high unemployment figures and Saudi desire to join the WTO.  Negotiations with the Europeans have led to new WTO compliant intellectual property laws and other legal and banking reforms.  Negotiations with the US and a few others are still pending.

Education

Of all the problems the Saudis face, the most difficult and troublesome is the system of education and its religious content.  Several limited steps have been taken.  Girls education was removed from control of the religious authorities.  Textbooks have been reviewed and egregious statements excised. The curricula are being updated and modernized.  A woman has been appointed, for the first time, to a senior academic position in the Arab Open University in Jeddah.  Student councils are being set up in public schools to begin educating young Saudis about civic responsibility and participatory governance.  But the basic question of methodology - memorization and authoritarian teaching practices - and the extensive number of hours devoted in early education to Islamic studies have not been touched.

The Road Ahead

Saudi Arabia still has a long way to go - Saudis freely admit this.  But they have been encouraged by the direction the Crown Prince is taking and by growing unity within the House of Saud in favor of reform. The image of the assassination by a religious fanatic of King Faisal, who organized the first major reform effort, and the takeover of the Holy Mosque by radicals, still haunt the Saudi leadership.  They fear that a misstep will bring chaos.  And they fear that the forces of change under those conditions would favor the radical Islamists not modernization or moderation.  The fear of radical reaction will moderate the pace of reform, but what has been started in the Kingdom in the way of reform, will be very difficult to turn back, unless it is by violent overthrow of the House of Saud.  And for now, overthrow looks unlikely.  While the Crown Prince and other members of the Royal Family told me that foreign pressure would neither increase the pace of reform nor discourage it, Saudi businessmen were less sanguine.  They felt that pressure, particularly from America, would work to the advantage of the religious extremists and undercut the legitimacy of the process of reform as a Saudi driven national priority.  

Middle East Institute Disclaimer:  Assertions and opinions in this MEI Perspective are solely those of the author and do not reflect necessarily the views of the Middle East Institute, which expressly does not take positions on Middle East policy.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ambassador Edward S. Walker, Jr. is the president of the Middle East Institute.  He has served as American ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Israel and was assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs from 1999-2001.

About the Middle East Institute
The Middle East Institute was founded in 1946 on the premise that the Middle East would become a key region for the United States, one that required an understanding that went beneath the surface of events. This insight was prophetic; we have seen the Middle East emerge as an area vital to US interests in the world, to the world's economy, and to world peace.. ..the Middle East Institute brings special strengths to the mission of increasing American understanding of this complex and fascinating area.

Click here for more information about the Middle East Institute.