Is Saudi Arabia finally taking an interest in its own heritage? | Jason Burke

For years, the country has been erasing any evidence of its polytheistic, desert-dwelling past. But now, slowly, the tide may be starting to turn

Tell people in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, that you are on your way to al-Qassem province and they raise their eyebrows. Al-Qassem is, even in this deeply conservative country, deeply conservative. It is a two- to three-hour drive west along the main highway, and smack in the middle of the arid interior. Over recent decades several cities in al-Qassem have seen revolts against the Saudi royal family's authority, led by clerics who have denounced their rulers as dangerous reformers and moderates. There are few tourists in Saudi Arabia and even fewer out in al-Qassem.

Dr Ibrahim Darwish, a religious scholar and sociologist who runs a thinktank in the province's third-largest town, Rass, describes a "closed and solid" society that is "traditional, hospitable, generous and plainspeaking".

Continue reading...