made it possible to project its influence and conser-
vative Islamic doctrines around the world.
During the cold war years, Saudi Arabia devel-
oped a close relationship with the United States
as a bulwark against the spread of Soviet influ-
ence and leftist movements in the Middle East. It
played a leading role in the creation of the mUslim
World leagUe (founded in 1962) and the orga-
nization oF the islamic conFerence (founded in
1969), both of which exist to promote global Mus-
lim unity. It has also taken a strong stand against
the spread of revolutionary Iranian Shiism in the
Gulf region, and supported Iraq in its 1980–88
war with Iran. In 1990–91, however, Saudi Arabia
joined a large international coalition of forces, led
by the United States, to expel Iraq from neighbor-
ing Kuwait. It also joined with the United States
and Pakistan in the 1980s to aid the aFghan mUJa-
hidin in their war against the Soviet Union, which
had occupied aFghanistan in 1978.
Saudi Arabia has made great strides toward
educating its people, both men and Women, since
the 1970s. It has 20 public universities and more
than 24,000 schools. Many members of the royal
family and the middle class have received their
college educations abroad in the United States and
Britain. At the same time, Saudi Arabia has had to
balance its conservative Islamic tradition, based
on sharia law, with internal pressure for reform.
Several domestic opposition movements have
developed, while others are based abroad. These
groups have called for a variety of reforms, par-
ticularly with regard to democratization, hUman
rights reform, and social justice. The lives of
Saudi women are strictly controlled, but in 1990
a number of university women publicly protested
the ban that prohibits women from driving. In
2008 the government agreed to some changes in
rights for women, including a decree that allows
women to enter a hotel without a chaperone; the
government has also agreed to lift the driving ban,
but no official decree has yet been issued.
Saudi Arabia must also deal with the question
of religious violence and terrorism. In 1979 a
group of rebels, following a Saudi they believed to
be the promised mahdi, seized the Sacred Mosque
in Mecca after the bajj and called for an end to
Saudi rule. They were opposed to the sweeping
modernization programs that the government
had launched in the 1970s. The rebels could be
removed only by force, with significant loss of life.
The event left the Saudi kingdom greatly shaken.
Later, in September 2001, many of the hijackers
involved in the attacks on New York and Wash-
ington were Saudi nationals. Usama bin ladin, the
leader of the al-qaida organization that conducted
these attacks, was the son of the country’s foremost
contractor, Muhammad bin Ladin (d. 1967), who
had founded the company that built much of Saudi
Arabia’s modern infrastructure. Although Usama
had assisted the Saudi government in Afghanistan
in the 1980s, he was stripped of his Saudi national-
ity in 1994 because of his opposition to the govern-
ment’s close relationship with the United States. In
particular, he was opposed to the stationing of U.S.
troops in the Muslim holy land. Beginning in 2003
suicide bombers and militants suspected of having
links to al-Qaida carried out, or attempted to carry
out, a number of attacks in Saudi Arabia; most of
those killed were Saudi nationals.
See also bedoUin; commUnism; Faysal ibn
abd al-aziz al-saUd; gUlF states; gUlF Wars;
hashimite dynasty; reneWal and reForm move-
ments; shiism.
Juan E. Campo and Kate O’HalloranFurther reading: Paul Aarts and Gerd Nonneman, eds.,
Saudi Arabia in the Balance: Political Economy, Society, For-
eign Affairs (New York: New York University Press, 2006);
Christine Moss Helms, The Cohesion of Saudi Arabia: Evo-
lution of Political Identity (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins
University Press; London: Croom Helm, 1981); Madawi
al-Rasheed, A History of Saudi Arabia (Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 2002); Mai Yamani, Changed
Identities: The Challenge of the New Generation in Saudi
Arabia (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs,
2000); Ayman al-Yassini, Religion and State in the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1985).sawm See fasting.
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