Saudi Arabia: seeking security (catch all)

[davidbfpo]

Recent disorder in the Eastern Province received some coverage here and then faded away:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16543013

This link is to a background comment, although the author is Washington-based let's say his viewpoint is slanted:http://www.opendemocracy.net/joshua-...n-saudi-arabia

I know disorder in this reportedly mainly Shia minority dominated province has long been feared by outsiders, being adjacent to the oilfields.

[davidbfpo]

An odd IMO BBC World Service interview with a Saudi Princess in exile in Acton, West London:

... there are many changes she would like to see in Saudi Arabia - but that now is not the time for women to be allowed to drive.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17446831

If you Google Princess Basma Bint Saud Bin Abdulaziz there are similar intervews.

[BenR]

In my research in the topic of radicalism in Saudi Arabia I believe I have identified one of the primary underlying issues that drive this matter. This concerns the inability for the regime to create a reconciliation between modernity and the foundational elements of the Saudi state.

By this I refer to Abdul Aziz's utilization of the ultraconservative branch of Sunni Islam to unifying the tribes in place of what we in the west would view as nationalism. The very nature of Ibn Tamiyah's critique of progress that is latent within the doctrinal facets of Wahhabism leads to an underlying tension between material security (economy, military etc) and metaphysical security (narrative, norms, culture) within the modern Saudi state.

The overflow effect of this, of course, is a predilection towards violent offensive Jihad within a minority of the population who seem to find their underlying ontological outlook compromised by such a pervasive paradox.