New Directions for Saudi Arabia?

Last week, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah held an inter-religious conference in New York City. A participant in that conference said King Abdullah conveyed several important thoughts that would indicate a change in Saudi policy;

1. The King recognized that Saudi policy for the past century had been ineffective and had led to unnecessary conflicts.

2. The election of Barack Obama, an African-American, to the Presidency revealed the United States to be the democracy that we had always claimed to be.

3. The Kingdom was funding less extreme forms of Islam outside Saudi Arabia proper to tamp down the fires of radical jihadism.


The King's remarks seem to indicate a marked change in policy from that adhered to previously by rulers of Saudi Arabia. However, Abdullah is 84 years old, and it is not possible to surmise who long he might live and to what degree his course change can take hold before he dies. Undoubtedly, a new leader will arise from the House of Saud, and it is uncertain whether he will follow the course set by his predecessor. That being said, it is extremely interesting to hear a Saudi King remark about the negative impact of the extreme Wahhabi Islam that the Kingdom has bought off for the past century in order to maintain power there.

Finally , it is interesting to hear the King remark about the election of Barack Obama in the glowing terms he used. While some pundits are comparing Obama to Franklin Roosevelt based on the current economic crisis, Obama's influence can be far more wide ranging, so that he is really compared to John Kennedy insofar as the positive feelings that erupted worldwide after his election.

But positive feelings go only so far when one is confronting adversaries, and less then true friends may be more than willing to stand aside while the United States continues to bare the full weight of the battle against totalitarians, or as a friend of mine once put it, "I'll hold your coat, let's you and him fight."