1. Because Saudi Arabia: CIA, “Saudi Arabia, People,” World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html.
2. So fanatical was this preacher: Natana J. Delong-Bas, Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 33.
3. These young people: A minister and a deputy minister of two separate ministries, interviews by author, March 2009.
4. and at least 60 percent cannot afford a home: “Saudis wishing to own homes left with limited options,” Arab News, April 19, 2011, arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article366591.ece?service=print.
5. They know that nearly 40 percent: John Sfakianakis, “Employment Quandary: Youth Struggle to Find Work Raises Urgency for Reform,” Banque Saudi Fransi, February 16, 2011, p. 3.
6. They know that 90 percent: Adel Fakieh, Saudi minister of labor, interview by author, February 5, 2011.
7. Yet it is no secret: Ibid.
8. The first flood, in 2009: “302 Face Flood Probe,” Arab News, April 21, 2011, arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article368405.ece?service=print.
9. “They keep dying on me”: Jim Kuhn, Ronald Reagan in Private: A Memoir of My Years in the White House (New York: Penguin, 2004), p. 165.
10. “We are hypocrites”: Anonymous imam, interview by author, Riyadh, February 3, 2011.
11. With seventy thousand mosques: Abdullah Alheedan, assistant deputy minister for Islamic Affairs, interview by author, Riyadh, October 26, 2009.
12. “If we do not share responsibility”: Prince Saud bin Abdul Mohsin al Saud, interview by author, Jeddah, January 28, 2011.
1. How has an absolute monarchy: Prince Abdul Aziz bin Sattam al Saud, interview by author, April 10, 2010.
2. A strapping man: Alexei Vassiliev, The History of Saudi Arabia (New York: New York University Press, 2000), p. 203.
3. The imam had taught: Christine Moss Helms, The Cohesion of Saudi Arabia (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981), p. 92.
4. But unlike Washington: Simon Henderson, “After King Abdullah: Succession in Saudi Arabia,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy (August 2009), Policy Focus no. 96, p. 8.
5. But he is estimated: David Howarth, The Desert King (London: Quartet Books, 1980), pp. 117–18.
6. “Draw the sword”: Ameen Rihani, Maker of Modern Arabia (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1928), p. 75.
7. “Are there not a number”: Helms, Cohesion, p. 114.
8. The lessons learned: H. C. Armstrong, Lord of Arabia Ibn Saud: The Intimate Study of a King (London: Kegan Paul, 2005), p. 97.
9. Thus began the first jihadist: Yaroslav Trofimov, The Siege of Mecca (New York: Doubleday, 2007), p. 4.
10. But the siege claimed: Ibid., p. 225.
11. In 2009, to reinforce his call: King Abdullah’s endowment for KAUST is undisclosed, but KAUST is said to be “among the world’s best endowed” by its public relations officer, who, like the kingdom’s U.S. ambassador, Adel al Jubeir, doesn’t discourage the “second only to Harvard” description given by numerous Saudis.
12. “Neither I nor my ancestors”: Armstrong, Lord of Arabia, p. 151.
13. In 1938 Standard Oil: Rachel Bronson, Thicker Than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 17.
14. “Do you know”: Ibid., p. 19.
15. At least 80 percent: CIA, “Saudi Arabia: Economy,” World Factbook, at www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html.
16. Fully 40 percent of the budget that is: Robert Lacey, Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia (New York: Viking Penguin, 2009), p. 252.
17. A popular hadith: Imam Ahmad, 4/126, muttagun.com/scienceofhadith.html.
18. “Obey me for so long”: Barnaby Rogerson, The Heirs of Muhammad (Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 2007), p. 129.
19. Within fifty years: Ibid., p. 342.
20. The conquerors invited: Tamim Ansary, Destiny Disrupted (New York: Public Affairs, 2009), p. 85.
21. The security directorate: Dr. Abdulrahman al Hadlag, general director of Ideological Security Directorate, Ministry of Interior, interview by author, Riyadh, October 10, 2009.
22. The Al Saud have taken a lesson: Prince Abdul Aziz bin Sattam, interview by author, Riyadh, April 29, 2010, www.ummah.com/forum/showthread.php?257654-Mu-awiyah-s-Hair, accessed May 14, 2011.
1. “That is her home”: Lulu, interview by author, Riyadh, May 5, 2010.
2. “Men are in charge”: Koran 4:34.
3. Her eldest daughter: Lulu’s daughter, interview by author, Riyadh, January 18, 2011.
4. “The angel asks you”: Anonymous family, interview by author, Riyadh, January 27, 2010.
5. “Allahu akbar”: Frederick Mathewson Denny, An Introduction to Islam (New York: Macmillan, 1994), p. 120.
6. Public anger forced: Sarah Abdullah, “Court Grants 12-year-old Bride Divorce,” Arab News, April 29, 2010, p. 2.
7. “The Prophet consulted”: Sheikh Abdullah Mutlag, interview by author, Riyadh, October 26, 2009.
8. Muslims believe that each human: Sahih Muslim, book 1, hadith no. 2033, hadithcollection.com/about-hadith-books/129-Sahih%20Book%2001.%20faith/8551-sahih-muslim, accessed May 11, 2011.
9. “For nearly 1,400 years”: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Ideas and Realities of Islam (Chicago: ABC International Group, 2000), p. 74.
10. The Prophet is quoted: Denny, Introduction, p. 113.
11. When Muslims pray: Ibid., 122.
12. “In the name of God”: Koran 1:1–7.
13. The grand mufti, the kingdom’s senior: M. D. Humaidan, “Al-Asheikh Tells Hai’a Official to Stay Out of Shariah Issues,” Arab News, April 24, 2010, p. 2.
14. Within hours of the firing: “Hai’a Denies Statement Accuracy,” Saudi Gazette, April 27, 2010, p. 1.
15. In another unprecedented: Sheikh al Ghamdi, interview by Al Arabbiyah TV, April 30, 2010.
16. “There is only one change”: Sheikh Salman al Awdah, interview by author, Riyadh, February 18, 2008.
17. “Saudi society is slow”: Sheikh Salman al Awdah, interview by author, Riyadh, May 1, 2010.
18. Using a few non-Arabic words: Y. Admon, “Anti Soccer Fatwas Led Saudi Soccer Players to Join the Jihad in Iraq,” Middle East Media Research Institute, Inquiry & Analysis Series, Report no. 245 (October 2005), pp. 1–4, www.memri.org/report/en/print1494.htm, accessed May 11, 2011.
19. “First, practicing masturbation”: “Fasting person committing masturbation,” Fatwa No. 10551, www.alifta.com, Fatwas of the Permanent Committee, browse by page number, group 1, pt. 10, p. 259.
20. The ulama insist: Chapter on nullifications of Wudu’, “Whether touching or shaking hands with a non-Mahram woman …,” www.alifta.com, Fatwas of the Permanent Committee, browse by page number, group 1, pt. 5, p. 268.
21. Similarly it is acceptable: Salam, “Raising the hand when greeting someone far,” www.alifta.com, Fatwas of the Permanent Committee, browse by page number, group 1, pt. 24, p. 124.
22. “Things that used to be haram”: Young Imam University students and graduates, interview by author, Riyadh, October 9, 2009.
23. During the first two centuries: Tilman Nagel, The History of Islamic Theology (Princeton, N.J.: Marcus Wiener, 2000), p. 239.
24. The Prophet further said: “Gold-coated tableware and sanitary ware,” www.alifta.com, Fatwas of the Permanent Committee, browse by page number, group 1, pt. 22, p. 158.
25. Those who live by Allah’s: Koran 37:42–48.
26. “We have made it”: Koran 37:63–68.
27. Only martyrs are spared: Dr. Shadiah Hamza Sheikh, “Eternal Life: Rewards and Punishments,” p. 2, www.wefound.org/texts/Islam_files/EternalLife.htm, accessed May 11, 2011.
28. Ironically, this breakdown: Hamid Mowlana and Laurie J. Wilson, The Passing of Modernity: Communication and the Transformation of Society (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1990), p. 9.
1. Saudi Arabia boasts 9.8 million: International Telecommunications Union, www.internetworldstats.com/me/sa.htm, accessed May 11, 2011.
2. And with 5.1 million Saudis: Spot On Public Relations, http://www.spotonpr.com/egypt-facebook-demographics, accessed September 10, 2011.
3. Tellingly, Saudi users are: Middle East and North Africa Facebook Demographics (Spot On Public Relations, May 2010); also “Saudi Arabia Facebook Statistics,” Socialbakers.com, www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/saudi-arabia, accessed March 12, 2012.
4. More ominously: Muhammad al Sulami, “Kingdom Amends Media Laws,” Arab News, April 29, 2011, arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article377672.ece?service=print, accessed April 30, 2011.
5. “Honor is what makes”: David Pryce-Jones, The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2002), p. 35.
6. “Between the poles”: Ibid., p. 41.
7. Rana, the mother: University-educated daughter of a professor, interview by author, Riyadh, October 11, 2009, and January 16, 2011.
8. Thus, tribal raiding: Marcel Kurpershoek, Arabia of the Bedouins (London: Saqi Books, 1992), p. 65.
9. There he heads: Abdul Rahman bin Humaid, interview by author, Yanbu, February 2, 2010.
1. “The resistance to change”: Madawi al Hassoun, interview by author, Jeddah, April 6, 2009.
2. “We don’t want to be”: Nashwa Taher, Jeddah Chamber of Commerce board member, interview by author, Jeddah, April 4, 2009.
3. “We feel sorry”: Amal Suliman, King Saud University, interview by author, Riyadh, October 18, 2009.
4. “Oh Allah, I ask”: Sa’eed ibn ali ibn Wahf al Qahtaani, Fortification of the Muslim Through Remembrance and Supplication from the Quran and the Sunnah, trans. Ishmael Ibraheem (Riyadh: Ministry of Islamic Affairs, 1998), no. 74, p. 209.
5. In sum, the religious: Mai Yamani, Changed Identities: The Challenge of the New Generation in Saudi Arabia (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2000), p. 97.
6. “A woman is made”: Salwa Abdel Hameed al Khateeb, interview by author, Riyadh, February 18, 2008.
7. As women become: Dr. Muhammad A. al Ohali, deputy minister of educational affairs, Ministry of Higher Education, interview by author, Riyadh, October 6, 2009.
8. They want divorces: Khalad al Jabri, “Half of Wedding Hall’s Marriages End in Divorce,” Saudi Gazette, February 20, 2010.
9. Women make up less than 12 percent: Dr. John Sfakianakis, “Employment Quandary: Youth Struggle to Find Work Raises Urgency for Reform,” Banque Saudi Fransi, February 16, 2011, p. 6.
10. Despite efforts by King Abdullah: Noura Alturki and Rebekah Braswell, Businesswomen in Saudi Arabia: Characteristics, Challenges and Aspirations in a Regional Context (Jeddah: Chamber of Commerce, July 2010), p. 10.
11. A new survey: Ibid., p. 11.
12. A month later: Geraldine Brooks, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women (New York: Doubleday, 1995), p. 197.
13. Before their demonstration: Ibid., p. 198.
14. “Allowing women to drive”: Fatwas of Ibn Bin Baz, “Ruling on Female Driving of Cars,” browse by page, pt. 3, p. 351, www.alifta.com.
15. “The king wants”: A close relative of King Abdullah, interview by author, Jeddah, January 26, 2011.
16. “Son of mine uncle”: Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources (Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2006), p. 35.
17. She is estimated by: Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet (San Francisco: Harper, 1992), p. 80.
18. “You are striving”: Ibid., pp. 84–85.
19. Kadijah became the first: Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992), p. 47.
20. Once Kadijah died: Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri, When the Moon Split: A Biography of the Prophet Muhammad, trans. Tabassum Siraj, Michael Richardson, and Badr Azimabadi (Riyadh: Darussalam, 1998), p. 413.
21. Aisha was only six: Armstrong, Muhammad, p. 145, Brooks, Nine Parts, p. 79.
22. One story recounts how Aisha: Bukhari Hadith, vol. 5, bk. 58, no. 168.
23. This marriage violated: Brooks, Nine Parts, p. 83; Armstrong, Muhammad p. 196.
24. The Prophet laughed: Barnaby Rogerson, The Heirs of Muhammad (Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 2007), p. 111.
25. Instead, he beckoned to: Lings, Muhammad, p. 282.
26. Women in his day: Ahmed, Women and Gender, p. 72.
27. Nusaybah, a woman of Medina: Lings, Muhammad, p. 191.
28. Unfortunately for women: Ahmed, Women and Gender. p. 90.
29. “Establishment Islam’s version”: Ibid., p. 239.
30. “Our religious leaders say”: Suhaila Zein Al Abdein Hammad, interview by author, Riyadh, February 14, 2008.
31. That exclusion held: M. D. Humaidan, “Women May Not Vote in April 23 Municipal Polls,” Arab News, March 24, 2011, p. 2; Reuters, March 28, 2011, www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USTRE72R65E20110328, accessed May 12, 2011.
32. “I am the first woman”: Norah al Faiz, interview by author, Riyadh, April 14, 2009.
33. In 2010 he conferred: Arab News, January 12, 2010, p. 1.
34. Or as the princess: Princess Adelah, interview by author, Riyadh, January 13, 2010.
35. “If a woman can stand up”: Maha Muneef, interview by author, Riyadh, January 10, 2010.
36. “We have the opportunity”: Princess Adelah, interview by author, Riyadh, January 28, 2009.
37. “People had less means”: Ibid.
38. All this helps account: Arab News, May 10, 2009.
39. “Sometimes I feel overwhelmed”: Reema, interview by author, Jeddah, October 5, 2009.
40. “Women rode”: Alya al Huwaiti, interview by author, Riyadh, January 29, 2009.
41. “I am like my sister”: Sara al Huwaiti, interview by author, Riyadh, January 29, 2009.
42. “We have had some progress”: Alia Banaja, interview by author, Jeddah, April, 8, 2009.
43. “I’m not advertising”: Manal Fakeeh, interview by author, Jeddah, April 5, 2009.
44. The tale of one woman from: Rania Salamah, “Saga of the Forcefully Divorced Couple,” Arab News, September 21, 2006, archive.arabnews.com/?page=13§ion=0&article+86892&d=29&m=9&y=2006, accessed July 1, 2010.
45. Within months: Walaa Hawari, “Judiciary Council Overturns Forced-Divorce Decision,” Arab News, January 31, 2010.
46. Fatima’s tale, however horrifying: Walaa Hawari, “Forced-Divorce Victims; Fatima, Mansour Finally Together,” Arab News, February 19, 2010, arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article19435.ece, accessed July 1, 2010.
47. “Girls wait to be selected”: Fawzia al Bakr, interview by the author, Riyadh, April 25, 2010.
1. Strolling alone: Kris Kristofferson, “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” 1970, www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3904, accessed May 13, 2011.
2. Yet religious fundamentalists: Abdullah al Shammary, Ministry of Information, e-mail to author, March 2, 2001; Majed al Maimouni and Nawaf Afit, “Religious Group Disrupts Riyadh Book Fair,” Saudi Gazette, May 3, 2011, www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2011030395019, accessed May 13, 2011.
3. “Youth want freedom”: Saker al Mokayyad, Prince Naif Arab University for Security Sciences, interview by author, Riyadh, January 27, 2009.
4. In a recent survey, some 31 percent: ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller, Arab Youth Survey, March 2011, p. 24, www.Arabyouthsurvey.com.
5. A second youth video: “Businessman Donating 200,000 Sq. Meters Land to Solve Housing Woes,” Arab News, November 14, 2011, arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article533299.ece?service=print.
6. When the conversation didn’t go: Adnan Shabrawi and Obaidallah al Ghamdi, “Ministry Slams ‘Inaccurate’ Media Reports over School Girl’s Sentence,” Saudi Gazette, January 28, 2010, p. 4.
7. But some of the 225 youths: “Youths Ransack Al Khobar Shops,” Arab News, September 26, 2009; “Rioters Caused Huge Losses, Al Khobar Businesses Claim,” Arab News, September 27, 2009, http://archive.arabnews.com/services/print/print.asp?artid=126786&d=260&m=9&y=2009&pix=kingdom.jpgandcategory=kingdom, accessed September 27, 2009.
8. A dozen of the teens: Siraj Wahab and Molouk Y. Ba-Isa, “Dozen Teens Flogged for Role in Rampage,” Arab News, September 30, 2009, p. 2.
9. Traffic accidents are: Faisal Aboobacker Ponnani, “Saher Seminar Held for EP Expats,” Saudi Gazette, January 18, 2011, www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2011011891564, accessed May 13, 2001.
10. The younger answers: Anonymous teenager, interview by author, Jeddah, February 14, 2008.
11. “Our concentration was on”: Mustafa, interview by author, Riyadh, October 29, 2009.
12. Indeed, according to public security: Muhammad al Negir, Public Security, Ministry of Interior, interview by author, Riyadh, April 1, 2009.
13. Some 90 percent of stolen cars: Ibid.
14. “I don’t accept”: Anonymous young man, interview by author, Riyadh, October 9, 2009.
15. The artist “perceives a culture”: Eyad Meghazel, “Installation,” Young Saudi Artists exhibition, Athr Gallery, Jeddah, January 12–31, 2001.
16. “It is like pressing”: Prince Saad bin Muhammad, interview by author, Jeddah, January 29, 2011.
17. “The government has become”: Mai Yamani, Changed Identities: The Challenge of the New Generation in Saudi Arabia (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institute Press, 2000), p. 148.
18. In mosques, they hear: “Sheikh Al-Qaradawi: Kaust Will Lead to ‘Renaissance of the Ummah,’ ” Saudi Gazette, October 24, 2009, 64.65.60.109/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2009102452459, accessed May 13, 2011.
19. How can a film festival: Omaima al Fardan, “Jeddah Film Festival Canceled,” Arab News, July 19, 2009, http://archive.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=124684&d=19&m=7&y2009&hl-Jeddah_Film_Festival_canceled, accessed May 15, 2011.
20. Why did the kingdom: Salman al Malki, interview by author and written responses to author’s questions, Riyadh, January 23, 2011.
21. “Facebook opens the doors”: Anonymous young man, interview by author, Riyadh, January 9, 2009.
22. “I saw things change”: Anonymous source, interview by author, Jeddah, January 23, 2011.
23. “The young are at a crossroads”: Anonymous source, interview by author, Jeddah, April 8, 2009.
24. “Religion here is just”: Ahmad Shugairi, interview by author, Jeddah, January 21, 2009.
25. “We cover everything”: Prince Turki bin Khalid, interview by author, Riyadh, October 12, 2009.
26. “The young generation is demanding”: Abdulaziz al Khayyal, senior vice president for industrial relations Saudi ARAMCO, interview by author, Dhahran, March 21, 2009.
27. In recent years, the company: Samir Tubayyeb, executive director for employee relations and training, Saudi ARAMCO, interview by author, Dhahran, March 21, 2009.
28. “As Gandhi said”: Young women at Saudi ARAMCO, interview by author, Dhahran, March 21, 2009.
29. Because he has no way: Salim al Fafi, interview by author, Faifa, April 9, 2009.
1. “Please excuse me”: Prince Abdullah bin Musa’id, interview by author, Riyadh, October 11, 2009.
2. “In the United States ‘we tried’ ”: Prince Abdullah bin Musa’id, interview by author, Riyadh, April 15, 2009.
3. “Soccer is our only”: Ibid.
4. Third-generation princes: Robert Baer, “The Fall of the House of Saud,” Atlantic, May 2003, p. 6, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2003/05/the-fall-of-the-house-of-saud/4215, accessed May 14, 2011.
5. When the monarch reached: Robert Lacey, The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Saud (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981), pp. 425–26.
6. “Here Saudis prefer”: Prince Abdullah bin Musa’id, interview by author, Riyadh, April 15, 2009.
7. Prince Abdul Aziz earned: Prince Abdul Aziz bin Sattam, interview by author, Riyadh, March 26, 2009.
8. “Over the next thirty to fifty years”: Prince Abdul Aziz bin Sattam, interview by author, Riyadh, January 29, 2011.
9. The kingdom is undertaking a $2 billion: Abdullah bin Muhammad al Yahya, president of the Court of Appeal, general secretary, Supreme Judicial Council, interview by author, Riyadh, October 27, 2009.
10. But Prince Abdul Aziz argues: Prince Abdul Aziz bin Sattam, interview by author, March 24, 2009.
11. “I am only fifteen days”: Prince Abdul Aziz bin Sattam, interview by author, October 6, 2009.
12. When Prince Sultan was born: Prince Sultan bin Salman, interview by author, Riyadh, January 14, 2010.
13. “We cannot believe anyone”: Robert Lacey, Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia (New York: Viking Penguin, 2009), p. 88.
14. Given the speed: Prince Sultan bin Salman, interview by author, Riyadh, January 14, 2010.
15. “He didn’t ask”: Ibid.
16. “On the first day”: Prince Sultan bin Salman, keynote speech, Global Space Technology Forum, Abu Dhabi, UAE, December 7–9, 2009, p. 4.
17. “There is no doubt”: Prince Sultan bin Salman, interview by author, Riyadh, January 14, 2010.
18. “Do you want to know”: Princess Hala bint Sultan bin Salman, interview by author, Riyadh, January 14, 2010.
19. “We can’t continue”: Prince Sultan bin Salman, interview by author, Riyadh, January 14, 2010.
20. Turki served as director: “Prince Turki al Faisal,” Saudi Embassy, www.saudiembassy.net/about/turkibio.aspx, accessed May 14, 2011.
21. The prince now: Prince Turki al Faisal, King Faisal Foundation, www.kff.com/EN01/KFCRIS/KFCRISIndex.html, accessed May 14, 2011.
22. The prince reportedly is: Barbara Ferguson, “Prince Turki al Faisal Resigns as Saudi Ambassador to U.S.,” Arab News, December 13, 2006, archive.arabnews.com/services/print/print.asp?artid=89943&d=13&m=12&y=2006, accessed May 14, 2011.
23. “We miss you too”: Prince Turki al Faisal, interview by author, Riyadh, May 4, 2008.
24. In that post: Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), p. 104.
25. “In the fifties to the nineties”: Prince Turki al Faisal, interview by author, Riyadh, January 27, 2008.
1. No less an exemplar: Koran 62:2.
2. At that time, only 2 percent: Helen Chapin Metz, ed., Saudi Arabia: A Country Study (Washington, D.C.: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1992), Education, p. 1, countrystudies.us/saudi-arabia/, accessed March 7, 2010.
3. In comparison with students: “Mathematics Achievement of Fourth and Eighth Graders in 2007,” Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, table 1, nces.ed.gov/timss/table07_1asp, accessed May 16, 2011.
4. Native Saudi male teachers: Consultant to the Ministry of Education, interview by author, Riyadh, January 13, 2009.
5. This helps explain: Dr. Mohammad A. al Ohali, deputy minister of educational affairs, Ministry of Higher Education, interview by author, October 6, 2009.
6. In a country where more than 60 percent: Michaela Prokop, “The War of Ideas: Education in Saudi Arabia,” in Paul Aarts and Gerd Nonneman, eds., Saudi Arabia in the Balance (New York: New York University Press, 2005), p. 77.
7. More alarmingly: Dr. John Sfakianakis, “Employment Quandary: Youth Struggle to Find Work Raises Urgency for Reform,” Banque Saudi Fransi, February 16, 2011, p. 3.
8. At 137 billion Saudi riyals: “Saudi Arabia Promises to Support Economic Recovery in 2010,” Middle East North Africa Financial Network, Arab News, December 24, 2009, p. 2, www.menafn.com/qn_print.asp?StoryID=1093291161&sub1=true, accessed March 4, 2010.
9. At the elementary school: Metz, Saudi Arabia, p. 2.
10. Indeed, Saudi educational policy: Ibid.
11. As a result of this educational: Abdulwahed al Humaid, deputy for planning and development, Ministry of Labor, interview by author, Riyadh, February 8, 2007.
12. Saudi schools weren’t always: Tewfiq al Saif, interview by author, Dammam, February 20, 2007.
13. The religious leaders departed: Abdul Mohsen al Akkas, former minister of social affairs, interview by author, Al Khobar, March 22, 2011.
14. When Nasser, a nationalist: Abdullah Uthaimin, historian, King Faisal Foundation, interview by author, Riyadh, February 16, 2008.
15. “Invading a country”: Ghazi al Gosaibi, minister of labor, interview by author, Riyadh, January 29, 2008.
16. “I always referred to Abdullah”: Ibid.
17. Teachers were sent: Faisal bin Muammar, deputy minister of education, interview by author, Riyadh, April 13, 2009.
18. “If you are serving”: Visit to School 48 in Riyadh by author, April 26, 2010.
19. The new textbooks: Naif H. al Romi, deputy minister of educational planning and development, Ministry of Education, interview by author, Riyadh, April 19, 2010.
20. By contrast, in the tiny: Ibid.
21. While Saudis came to the United States: Ambassador Adel al Jubeir, e-mail to the author, February 26, 2012.
22. Determined to reverse that: P. K. Abdul Ghafour, “Over 106,000 Saudis Get King Abdullah Scholarships,” Arab News, March 13, 2011, arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article316284.ece?service=print, accessed May 15, 2011.
23. To try to jump-start: Shafquat Ali, “KAUST: King’s Gift to the World,” Arab News, September 24, 2009, www.arabnews.com/services/print/print.asp?artid=126714&d=24&m=9&y=2009&hl=KAUST:kingsgifttotheworld, accessed September 24, 2009.
24. On campus, most students: Visit to KAUST by author, October 18, 2009.
25. “Throughout history, power”: KAUST press release, available at kaust.edu.sa.
26. By one estimate, fully 70 percent: Majlis Ash Shura member who asks to be anonymous, interview by author, Riyadh, January 30, 2008.
27. “There is no critical thinking”: King Saud University professor who asks to be anonymous, interview by author, Riyadh, February 16, 2008.
28. “Students aren’t curious”: King Saud University professor who asks to be anonymous, interview by author, Riyadh, October 11, 2009.
29. The regime is seeking to make up: “Saudi Arabia Promises to Support Economic Recovery in 2010,” Middle East North Africa Financial Network, Arab News, December 24, 2009, p. 2, www.menafn.com/qn_print.asp?StoryID=1093291161&sub1=true, accessed March 4, 2010.
30. “On a visit to Hail”: Former official of city of Hail who asks to remain anonymous, interview by author, Riyadh, January 11, 2009.
31. The girls who tried to flee: “Saudi Arabia: Religious Police Role in School Fire Criticized,” Human Rights Watch, March 14, 2002, www.hrw.org/en/news/2002/03/14/saudi-arabia-religious-police-role-school-fire-criticized, accessed May 15, 2011.
32. There are some outposts: Visit to Ahliyya School in Dammam by author, March 22, 2009.
33. “The time has come”: Maha Fozan, interview by author, Riyadh, October 13, 2009.
34. “A woman is allowed to speak”: Muhammad Abdul Kareem al Eisa, minister of justice, March 2, 2010, written response to a question asked in an interview by author, Riyadh, January 19, 2010.
35. The kingdom’s 5.5 million: Salah al Amr, vice governor for development, Technical and Vocational Training Center, interview by author, January 25, 2009.
36. even though between 2002 and 2006: Dr. Muhammad A. al Ohali, deputy minister of educational affairs, Ministry of Higher Education, interview by author, Riyadh, October 6, 2009.
37. “Families put kids”: Ibid.
38. Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, minister: Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, interview by author, Riyadh, April 15, 2009.
39. Easier said than done: Stephane Lacroix, telephone interview by author, March 6, 2009.
1. Two out of every three people: Abdulwahed al Humaid, deputy minister for planning and development, Ministry of Labor, interview by author, Riyadh, January 26, 2010.
2. And in Saudi Arabia’s anemic: Adel Fakieh, minister of labor, interview by author, Riyadh, February 5, 2011.
3. In 2011, thanks primarily: “Economy: Saudi Arabia,” The World Factbook, CIA, 2012, www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html, accessed March 9, 2012.
4. As a result, on a per capita income: “Country Comparison: GDP Per Capita (PPP),” The World Factbook, CIA, 2012, www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html, accessed March 9, 2012.
5. “By 2030, foreign assets”: Brad Bourland, “Saudi Arabia’s Coming Oil and Fiscal Challenge,” Jadwa Investment (July 2011), p. 1.
6. Not only is unemployment: John Sfakianakis, “Employment Quandary: Youth Struggle to Find Work Raises Urgency for Reform,” Banque Saudi Fransi, February 16, 2011, p. 3.
7. but 40 percent of all Saudi citizens: Senior officials at two separate ministries, interview by author, Riyadh, 2010.
8. The king’s decision to institute: Muhammad Ibrahim, “SR500bn Social Spending Package Outlined,” Arab News, March 18, 2011, arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article321419.ece?service=print, accessed March 26, 2011.
9. With this latest largesse: John Sfakianakis, “Holding Back: State Spending Focus Restrains Private Sector, Diversification,” Banque Saudi Fransi, May 17, 2011, p. 2.
10. Indeed, adjusted for inflation: Ibid., p. 7.
11. So while the private sector: Sfakianakis, “Employment Quandary,” p. 3.
12. The previous plan called: Ibid., p. 5.
13. Now, as in the days: Dr. Muhammad al Zolfa, member of Majlis Ash-Shura, interview by author, January 24, 2009.
14. One may well wonder: OPEC Net Oil Export Revenues, OPEC Revenues Fact Sheet, Energy Information Administration, www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/OPEC_Revenues/Factsheet.html, accessed July 7, 2009.
15. down to $215.3 billion in 2010: John Sfakianakis, “Quota Counting: New Saudi Employment Rules to Shake Up Private Sector,” Banque Saudi Fransi, June 14, 2011, p. 9.
16. “At least 85 to 90 percent”: Dr. Khalid al Falih, CEO Saudi ARAMCO, interview by author, Dhahran, March 21, 2009.
17. A 2011 survey of three hundred projects: “Only Three Percent of Projects Finish on Time: Study,” Arab News, May 19, 2011, arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article415376.ece?service=print, accessed May 20, 2011.
18. Arab News, the kingdom’s major: Ghazanfar Ali Khan, “King Lays Foundation Stone for Women’s University,” Arab News, October 30, 2008.
19. but it actually had cost 20 billion: Ghazanfar Ali Khan, “World’s Largest University for Women Opened,” Arab News, May 16, 2011.
20. One sad snapshot: “Patents by Country, State, and Year—All Patent Types,” U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (December 2010), p. 3, www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/cst_all.htm, accessed May 17, 2011.
21. “We want to move from”: Dr. Khalid al Sulaiman, deputy minister of industry, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, interview by author, March 30, 2009.
22. In addition to the new Industrial: Dr. Turki Saud Mohammed al Saud, vice president for research institutes, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, interview by author, Riyadh, March 28, 2009.
23. A Higher Education Plan: Dr. Muhammad A. al Ohali, deputy minister of educational affairs, Ministry of Higher Education, interview by author, Riyadh, October 6, 2009.
24. Yet in 2009 the government: Sfakianakis, “Employment Quandary,” p. 3.
25. For instance, a business procures: Abdulrahman Zamil, interview by author, Riyadh, January 18, 2011.
26. Of course, occasionally: Mishaal al Tamimi, “In Visa Scams, Crooks Become Victims,” Arab News, March 31, 2011, arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article336633.ece?service=print, accessed May 16, 2011.
27. This illegal conduct: Saleh al Rasheed, “This Business Will Finally Ruin Us,” Arab News, April 28, 2011, arabnews.com/opinion/columns/article375117.ece?service=print, accessed April 28, 2011.
28. If the private-sector workforce: John Sfakianakis, “Holding Ground: Saudi H2 Economic Outlook Sound in Face of External Stress,” Banque Saudi Fransi, June 14, 2010, p. 8.
29. A survey by the Riyadh Chamber: Steffen Hertog, Princes, Brokers, and Bureaucrats: Oil and the State in Saudi Arabia (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2010), p. 251.
30. Some 60 percent of university: Sfakianakis, “Employment Quandary,” p. 6.
31. More recently, the government has: Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, minister of education, interview by author, October 25, 2009.
32. “I pity my children”: Badea Abu al Naja, “Unable to Pay Rent, Makkah Family Live in Tent,” Arab News, May 11, 2008, p. 3.
33. The latest five-year development: Salah al Amr, vice governor for development, Technical and Vocational Training Corporation, interview by author, Riyadh, January 25, 2009.
34. Everything is state of the art: Visit to High Institute for Plastic Education by author, Riyadh, January 28, 2009.
35. One sign of how badly: Monera al Aloula, assistant deputy governor of training, Girls Technical College, interview by author, Riyadh, February 7, 2007.
36. Remittances from expat workers surged: Sfakianakis, “Holding Ground,” p. 8.
37. Yet more than three: Ayman Kanaan, vice president for the Industrial Steel Products Group, Zamil Steel, interview by author, Al Khobar, January 24, 2010.
38. To meet government goals: Ibid.
39. “When you build”: Abdulrahman al Zamil, interview by author, Riyadh, February 17, 2008.
40. “My brother wanted”: Abdulrahman al Zamil, interview by author, October 10, 2009.
41. “I would put him”: Ali al Qahtani, manager of Haram Store, interview by author, Riyadh, January 14, 2010.
42. “It is not permitted”: Rima al Mukhtar, “Saudis Shocked by Fatwa Banning Women Cashiers,” Arab News, November 1, 2010, arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article177726.ece?service=print, accessed May 16, 2011.
43. The state has “fundamentally”: Hertog, Princes, Brokers, p. 259.
44. While the government claims: Official at a prominent financial institution, interview by author, Riyadh, April 15, 2009.
45. But the estimated waiting: John Sfakianakis, “Under Construction: Saudi Steps Up Efforts to Meet Home, Loan Demand,” Banque Saudi Fransi, March 20, 2011, p. 3.
46. Lower-income Saudis: Ibid., p. 5.
47. As revolutionary winds swept: Muhammad Ibrahim, “SR500bn Social Spending Package Outlined,” Arab News, March 18, 2011, arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article321419.ece?service=print, accessed March 26, 2011.
1. Surprising as it may seem: Study, not public, quoted to author by senior officials in two different ministries.
2. As the Saudi population: “Saudi Arabia, Statistics, Demographic Indicators,” UNICEF, www.unicef.org/infobycountry/saudiarabia_statistics.html#78.
3. “I need this job”: Umm Turki, interview by author, Riyadh, January 19, 2010.
4. “Who among people deserves”: Sahih al Bukhari, Book of Good Manners, vol. 8.
5. “I pray to God”: Divorcee, interview by author, Riyadh, January 19, 2010.
6. “My life with my husband”: Widow, interview by author, Riyadh, January 19, 2010.
7. “I don’t want people”: Umm Muhammad, interview by author, Jeddah, October 19, 2009.
8. The chamber of commerce also: Basmah Omair, interview by author, April 6, 2009.
9. “There are a lot”: Abdullah, interview by author, Riyadh, October 26, 2009. Abdullah declined to give his family name.
10. “O you who have believed”: Koran 2:264.
11. “If you disclose your”: Koran 2:271.
12. My guide for the visit: Mekhlef bin Daham al Shammary, interview by author, April 23, 2010.
13. “Life was better”: Author visit to imam of Al Athla, a village near Jizan, April 11, 2009.
14. “He is not a perfect Muslim who”: Sahih Bukhari, www.ahya.org/amm/modules.php?name=Sections&op=printpage&artid=151.
1. The prince, still holding: Dr. Abdulrahman al Hadlag, general director of Ideological Security Directorate, Ministry of Interior, interview by author, October 10, 2009.
2. Khalid fit the profile: Ibid.
3. “I missed my family”: Khalid Sulayman al Hubayshi, interview by author, Jeddah, October 18, 2009.
4. “I was not religious”: Khalid al Bawadi, interview by author, Riyadh, January 16, 2010.
5. “I smoked”: Muhammad Fozan, interview by author, Riyadh, October 13, 2009.
6. “So long as they”: Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, deputy minister of interior, interview by author, Riyadh, February 6, 2007.
7. “If you just cut”: Jamal Khashoggi, interview by author, January 21, 2010.
8. As a result, the government now is paying: Dr. Abdulrahman al Hadlag, interview by author, Riyadh, October 20, 2009.
9. The men, who live: Visit to Prince Muhammad bin Nayef Care Center by author, Riyadh, October 12, 2009.
10. “Art in Saudi Arabia”: Awad al Yami, interview by author, Riyadh, October 12, 2009.
11. “When radicalism goes underground”: Thomas Hegghammer, interview by author, Princeton, N.J., June 23, 2010.
12. “No one recruited me”: Hegghammer, Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism Since 1979 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 139.
13. “near enemy”: Gilles Kepel and Jean-Pierre Milelli, Al Qaeda in Its Own Words, trans. Pascale Ghazaleh (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008), p. 158.
14. “Liberating the Muslim”: Ibid., p. 205.
15. “Take not for friends”: Koran 4:138–39.
16. “God prohibited”: Kepel and Milelli, Al Qaeda, p. 212.
17. “We saw the noblest”: Ibid., p. 207.
18. “Democracy is a new religion”: Ibid., p. 184.
19. “Terrorism is criminal”: Saudi Gazette, March 3, 2010, www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2010022063962, accessed March 12, 2012.
20. More terrorist cells: Hegghammer, Jihad, p. 216.
21. “The only way of repelling”: Kepel and Milelli, Al Qaeda, p. 49.
22. Three of the first: Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 59–64.
1. The second Saudi state: Alexei Vassiliev, The History of Saudi Arabia (New York: New York University Press, 2000), p. 187.
2. “Join hands across”: Robert Lacey, The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Saud (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981), p. 318.
3. In a kingdom that then: David Howarth, The Desert King (London: Quartet Books, 1980), p. 198.
4. As the king drove: Lacey, Kingdom, pp. 300–302.
5. When Faisal went: Ibid., p. 323.
6. “Have you got enough”: Ibid., p. 351.
7. Immediately after the fatwa: Ibid., pp. 353–56.
8. The new king, Faisal: Ibid., p. 356.
9. With that history in mind: “King Abdullah Names Members of the Allegiance Commission,” Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, December 10, 2007, www.saudiembassy.net/latest_news/news12100801.aspx, accessed May 17, 2011.
10. Abdul Aziz fathered some: Simon Henderson, “After King Abdullah: Succession in Saudi Arabia,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy (August 2009), Policy Focus no. 96, p. 3.
11. Her eldest son: For more on the Sudairis, see ibid., p. 6, and Joseph A. Kechichian, Succession in Saudi Arabia (New York: Palgrave, 2001), pp. 6–8.
12. “I pledge to Allah Almighty”: “King Abdullah Addresses Princes,” Leadership News, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, December 10, 2007, http://mofa.gov.sa/sites/mofaen/ServicesandInformation/news/statements/Pages/NewsArticleID72858.aspx, accessed March 29, 2008.
13. That 2009 appointment, made without: Henderson, “After King Abdullah,” p. 8.
14. “I call on the royal court”: “Prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Questions Saudi Succession Plan,” Reuters News Agency, March 29, 2009, http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi-arabia/prince-talal-bin-abdul-aziz-questions-saudi-succession-plan-1.60019, accessed May 21, 2011.
1. He dispensed $130 billion: Muhammad Ibrahim, “SR500bn Social Spending Package Outlined,” Arab News, March 18, 2011, arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article321419.ece?service=print, accessed March 26, 2011.
2. “If Saudi Arabia adopts democracy”: Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, governor of Riyadh Province, interview by author, Riyadh, April 28, 2010.
3. A new survey of Arab youth: “3rd Annual ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey,” March 2011, p. 15, www.asdaa.com.
4. The new pan-Arab youth survey: Ibid., p. 18.
5. One way to postpone: Samuel Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1968), p. 187.
6. Al Saud “will lose some”: Ibid., p. 191.
7. One such Saudi: Khalid al Nowaiser, “An Open Letter to King Abdullah,” Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2011.
8. “We are blind”: Khalid al Falih, interview by author, Dhahran, March 21, 2009.
1. “This is why we”: Rachael Bronson, Thicker Than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 118.
2. “north of $75 billion”: David Ottaway, The King’s Messenger (New York: Walker, 2008), p. 185.
3. Indeed, a meeting: Ibid., p. 186.
4. “Human beings are created”: “Principle of Justice Is Key,” Arab News, November 13, 2008, http://archive.Arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=116308&d=13&m=11&y=2008, accessed September 7, 2010.
5. China, Japan, South Korea: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Country Analysis Briefs, “Saudi Arabia Oil Exports and Shipping,” http://204.14.135.140/countries/cab.cfm?f.ps=SA., accessed March 14, 2011.
6. Abdullah also reached out: “Saudi King Holds Talks with Russian President, Says Relations ‘Stronger,’ ” BBC Worldwide Monitoring, February 12, 2007.
7. “not competitors but”: “Russia’s Strategic and Economic Alignment with the Arab States,” Globalia Magazine, September 26, 2008.
8. “It’s a Muslim marriage”: Ottaway, King’s Messenger, p. 226.
9. “We talk to some”: Prince Turki al Faisal, interview by author, Riyadh, March 31, 2009.
10. Saudi Arabia, however, is: Robert Baer, The Devil We Know (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2008), p. 138.
11. The kingdom’s military spending: milexdata.sipri.org/result.php4, accessed September 14, 2010.
12. Repairing the Saudi oil fields: Baer, Devil We Know, p. 138.
13. “It would not be as clear-cut”: Prince Turki, interview by author, Riyadh, March 31, 2009.
14. Indeed, James Schlesinger: Bronson, Thicker Than Oil, p. 107.
15. “Well,” asked Kissinger: Kissinger Telephone Transcripts, at foia.state.gov/documents/kissinger/0000C284.pdf.
16. “I did not threaten”: Henry Kissinger, interview by author, New York, July 13, 2011.
17. “I don’t know if what”: Prince Turki, interview by author, Riyadh, March 31, 2009.
18. “I don’t recall such”: Kissinger, interview by author, New York, July 13, 2011.
19. “The Saudis learned that”: Dr. James Schlesinger, interview by author, Washington, D.C., September 28, 2010.
20. If this trend continues: “Saudi Arabia Looks to Solar, Nuclear Power to Reduce Its Oil Use by Half,” Bloomberg, April 3, 2011, www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-03/solar-nuclear-energy-to-reduce-Saudi-oil-demand-official-says.html, accessed July 19, 2011.
21. The kingdom has announced plans: Brad Bourland, “Saudi Arabia’s Coming Oil and Fiscal Challenge,” Jadwa Investment, July 2011, p. 19.
22. Then in 1988 Saudi ARAMCO: Matthew R. Simmons, Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2005), p. 273.
23. In production since 1951: Ibid., p. 152.
24. “The death of this great”: Ibid., p. 179.
25. But since 1970: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Petroleum and Other Liquids, Annual U.S. Field Production of Crude Oil, http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&sMCRFPUS2&f=A, accessed May 19, 2011.
26. “We are not good”: James Schlesinger, “Energy Security,” keynote at Association for Study of Peak Oil, Cork, Ireland, September 2007.
27. “Since the 1970s the world”: Robert Hirsch, Roger Bezdek, and Robert Wendling, The Impending World Energy Mess (Eugene, Ore.: Mud City Press, 2010).
28. “ ‘It’ is the oil wealth”: “New Oil Fields Saved for Future Generations: King,” Saudi Gazette, September 7, 2010.
29. “The question is should we”: Khalid al Falih, interview by author, Dhahran, March 21, 2009.
1. “made up from different”: Alexis de Tocqueville, The Ancien Regime and the Revolution (London: Penguin Group, 2008), p. 112.
2. “it had been much simpler”: Ibid., p. 111.
3. “Only a great genius”: Ibid., p. 175.
4. “still looked unshakeable”: Ibid., p. 200.
5. A confident President Ahmadinejad: Neil MacFarquhar, “Iran’s Leader Warns U.S. as He Rebuts Criticism,” New York Times, September 22, 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/world/middleeast/22iran.html, accessed September 25, 2010.
6. “We have to go step”: Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz, interview by author, Riyadh, May 11, 2008.
7. “Kennedy, no fan of”: Lacey, The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Saud, p. 345.