The little tidbit about retaking the survey after the people of Afghanistan were liberated is quite interesting too.
Sounds to me like the royal family is really conflicted right now.
That's how I read it, too.
The royal family is caught between doing the right thing, and their own population which has been thoroughly indoctrinated against the west and Israel. It's really their own cowardice that has allowed things to progress to the state they are now in, but there's no easy fix.
They can't crack down on their own clerics without provoking a revolution, yet if they give into them, they're doomed, too. They are walking a tightrope, and we can only help them to some extent.
According to articles I've been reading, they've approx. 30% unemployment over there, massive corruption, and have a *lot* of "spoiled kid" mentality over there. The Saudi Royal Family used to pay each Saudi Citizen a ~$28,000 stipend (actually hush money) annually. That has now dropped to less than $8,000 and should plummet like a stone because of lack of U.S. demand and low prices.
The Saudi Royal family is now having *major* problems because of the puritanical Islamicism that they promoted is now coming back to "Bite the hand that feeds them." Instead of confronting the issue, the Saudi Royal family just sent the troublemakers elsewhere, meaning to the West, messing our "nest" instead of theirs. Now that the troublemakers have come home and are very powerful, the Saudis are doing whatever possible to keep in power and keep their heads attached. Expect them to sign deals with Russia and China *very* soon and turn very anti-American. I truly expect another Arab oil embargo against the U.S. soon. Count on it.
Food for thought - take a look at this article. The Imam (Chief Cleric) in question is in charge of one of the largest (if not *the* largest) mosque in all of Islam - one that will seat 1/2 Million Muslims *at one time*. Considering that the Muslim pilgrimage, the "Haj", is coming up shortly, and is expecting up to 2 Million pilgrims to attend, this Imam's preaching anti-Americanism is VERY forboding and a sign of things to come.
http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=12326
Saturday, January 26, 2002
Islam can’t be diluted: Shuraim
By Abdul Aziz Ghazzawi, Arab News Staff
MAKKAH, 26 January — The Imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah yesterday warned Muslims that giving in to outside pressure to alter established Islamic principles amounted to treason.
Gemflint's comments: "Makkah" is the city of Mecca, the "Holy City" of Islam. Their website: http://www.saudiarabia.net/text/city/makkahf.htm and http://www.iad.org/Madinah.html
"Bargaining on Islam and on its unquestionable principles amounts to high treason and extreme madness," Sheikh Saud Al-Shuraim said while giving his Friday sermon.
*********"The enemies of the Islamic Ummah will accept nothing less than that the Ummah abandons Islam, distances itself from the Shariah and makes concessions so that it remains a reality only in name," he told the faithful, including, a large number of pilgrims, who were thronging the large mosque complex for the Juma prayer.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the Western media has claimed that Islam promotes extremism and breeds terrorists of the kind who struck in New York and Washington, killing thousands. There have also been Western calls on governments of Islamic countries to take specific measures, such as amending their school curriculum and disbanding extremist organizations.
But Shuraim said it was unfair to blame Islam for problems it had not created. "Islamic countries and the teachings and principles of Islam have been the target of a smear campaign launched from within and outside the Islamic world," Shuraim added.
He warned against making any "ideological, intellectual or educational" concessions to those who seek to impose submission on Muslims.
Saudi Arabia has come under harsh criticism only because it is ruled by Islam, the imam added.
There's a lot of Saudi land near Israel, the West Bank, and Lebanon. Maybe they don't want a lot of evicted Palis as new neighbors? They already threw them out once as ungrateful guest-workers during the dust-up with Iraq in 1991.