Demographics determine destiny.
The following article about how the King of Saudi Arabia is attempting to weaken the hold that the Wahhabi fundamentalist have on the country contains an important piece of information that bodes ill for his efforts.
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This unlikely reformer, who has unofficially led the kingdom since King Fahd's stroke in 1995, has propelled the country through a radical transformation. From accession to the World Trade Organization to the billion-dollar overhaul of the educational system to increased criticism of the religious "police" who enforce a strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law, the closed kingdom is beginning to crack open.
'The oil boom is over'
These reforms come at a critical time. Saudi Arabia is barreling toward an economic and social crisis if it does not act fast. Almost 75 percent of Saudi citizens are under age 30 and youth unemployment is approaching 30 percent – a potential breeding ground for terrorists and regime dissidents. Current high oil prices are not enough to paper over the economic ravages of the past two decades. "The oil boom is over and will not return," Abdullah told his subjects. "All of us must get used to a different lifestyle."
Economic restructuring of the kingdom is no easy task, nor can it be separated from social reform, such as increasing women's participation in economic life and creating a business environment and laws suitable for foreign companies.
Faced with resistance from the conservative official ulema, Abdullah has adopted a strategy of "circumvention" to coerce these reforms – officially toeing the Wahhabi line, but quietly giving more leeway to the private sector.
Education, for example, had traditionally been firmly under Wahhabi control, with a focus on creating more imams than businessmen. But this won't help a country striving to become an international powerhouse. So private universities – previously shunned by the religious elite because of their relative independence – have recently been legalized, with a half-dozen Western-style institutions slated to open soon. The new King Abdullah University for Science and Technology, the kingdom's first coeducational institution, is an Abdullah initiative to create a global leader in technological innovation. He tasked the relatively secular Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources with running the project, keeping it away from the fundamentalists.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0815/p09s02-coop.htm
Saudi Arabia has a very high portion of youth, and 75% under the age of thirty is VERY high indeed. This, along with a powerful faction that feels marginalized and threatened by the Kings reforms, spells revolution.
Revolution in Saudi Arabia will not be Marxist in nature, it will be religious. A Saudi revolution will most resemble the Iranian revolution of the late 70's.
When this one starts, it will move very quickly, and it will be very bloody.
The Saudi revolutionaries will make the Iranian Revolutionary Guard look like limp-wristed milquetoast pansies.
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