At a recent global investment event in Riyadh, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced his plans to build a global megacity, NEOM, on the northwestern coast of Saudi Arabia over the next 10 years. To increase investor confidence in the kingdom, he reassured the world that Saudis want to “return to a moderate Islam that had existed in the country prior to 1979.”
That pledge contained both a promise and a threat: The crown prince vowed an immediate end to extremist ideas and the reestablishment of a tolerant Saudi Arabia, while blaming Iran and its 1979 revolution for sparking Saudi Arabia’s turn toward state-sponsored radicalization of religious thought.
The double-sided comment tells us a lot about Mohammad’s goals, as well as how he plans to achieve them. Much like last weekend’s crackdown, which included the arrests of some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the country in the name of cleaning up corruption, the prince’s liberalizing rhetoric cloaks far more sinister motives.
Read the full article at WashingtonPost.com.