Home Ken's Thoughts Of The Week Saudi Arabia is Modernizing Fast: Ken’s Thought of the Week

Saudi Arabia is Modernizing Fast: Ken’s Thought of the Week

March 8, 2020

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I recently took a trip to Saudi Arabia (SA), with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. I come away from this trip with a belief that the country is undergoing a rapid modernization process.

Historically, SA had been a “frenemy” (friend/enemy) of America. It bought huge amounts of U.S. weapons, and produced incremental oil when prices got out of control. But it also allowed the ultra-fundamentalist Wahhabi Muslim clerics to spread the message of radical Islam worldwide.

Me, in front of pictures of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (left), and father and grandfather to the right. (Photo courtesy Ken Abramowitz)

During the past five years, however, the SA government, led by 35-year-old Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman (MBS), is changing its historical paradigm to become more of a friend than an enemy.

Why is SA making these modernizing changes? There are several reasons:

(1) 70% of the population is below age 30, and they are demanding change.

(2) Young people are connected by smart phones and social media, and want to live like those in the West, not subjected to the legal restrictions on freedom of speech, and dissent, present in SA.

(3) The price of oil is unpredictable, and SA realizes that it must diversify its economy.

(4) Iran represents an existential threat to SA, and it needs American and even Israeli assistance to protect itself.

(5) Innovation is driving small nations like Israel and Singapore. SA also must learn to become innovative, to catch up with the modern world. It has already made some significant changes to unleash the creative spirit among its people.

During the past 50 years, SA has raised its literacy rate from 5% to 99%, cut infant mortality from 30% to 1%, and steadily raised the average life span. More recently, SA initiated particularly dramatic change over the past 5 years:

It vowed to “reclaim Islam”

It disbanded the religious police

It fired 3,000 hate-inciting imams

It is allowing Western-style music concerts

It is allowing women attend sports events, and to drive

It very recently opened up the country to tourism

Here are a few recent videos that describe the massive change occurring in SA:

Saudi Islamic Scholar Muhammad Bin Abdul Karim Issa: There Is No Place for Political Islam in France or Anywhere Else; People Must Respect the Laws and Values of Their Country or Leave pic.twitter.com/pd2nGLUzNR

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) March 8, 2020

Very notably, MBS announced the SA’s creation of a new city-state in northwest SA, near its borders with Jordan, Egypt, and Israel. An estimated $500 billion investment will create a new, advanced city in a new free economic zone called NEOM (new future). The city will be based on 9 economic centers that will serve innovative worldwide markets. This determination to modernize appears unstoppable, but much more change is needed for SA to be successful.

Going forward, my recommendations are that SA should:

(1) Directly re-educate its youth to become more tolerant of Christians, Jews, and Hindus and others.

(2) Allow Christian churches, and even Jewish synagogues, to be built.

(3) Stop funding mosques, schools, and universities worldwide.

(4) Create direct diplomatic relations with Israel.

(5) Stop tying foreign policy progress regarding Israel on the backs of an intransigent Palestinian Authority.

Changes of such magnitude is obviously difficult to accomplish overnight.

However, these changes are crucial to the success of SA, and its ability to thrive in a competitive world market. And MBS knows that he must make the best of the narrow window of opportunity that he managed to open.