The next stop on President Biden’s tour of the Middle East is Saudi Arabia, where he will meet with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, a/k/a MBS, who has brought unprecedented changes to his country. Arthur Herman observes:
[The crown prince’s] published manifesto, Saudi Vision 2030, includes the possibility of toleration and co-existence with other faiths, including Judaism and Christianity—a momentous concession from the man who will one day become the custodian of Islam’s two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina. In February 2020, MBS even arranged for his father, [King Salman], to meet with a Jerusalem-based rabbi, David Rosen.
The changes have come at breathtaking speed. The Saudi religious police, who used to roam the streets of Riyadh accosting and even beating women who dared to defy strict Islamic custom, have largely disappeared from view. Women are now driving cars, and they no longer have to wear an abaya—the loose-fitting black garment worn over women’s clothing—in public. Capital punishment for minors has been abolished, as has flogging.
This secularizing and modernizing tidal wave has aroused opposition as well as support among ordinary Saudis. Its success ultimately hangs on the fate of the man who is pressing it forward. The first important step, for example, in an improved U.S.-Saudi relationship would be getting the Saudis to sign on to the Abraham Accords, which can help to turn the growing Israeli-Sunni Arab alliance into the foundation of a new more peaceful Middle East.
On the other hand, if the U.S. continues to ignore the changes underway in Riyadh, we will see Saudi Arabia increasingly turning to China for the tools of modernization, including eventually military equipment. It’s already begun, with the Saudis signing on with Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei for building their 5G networks, which could severely set back U.S. cooperation with Saudi military and intelligence services.
Read more on Dispatch: https://thedispatch.com/p/the-man-who-would-change-the-middle