Saudi King Needs Wahhabi Muslim Support to Modernize Country

Abdulrahman al-Moshaigeh remembers leaving his mud-brick house and walking on unpaved roads to what was then the only elementary school serving Buraidah. “There’s no comparison,” says the former member of King Abdullah’s advisory Shoura Council. Since his birth in 1945, many changes have swept his hometown, the capital of Qassim province in Saudi Arabia’s conservative heartland. “Now we have more than 150 elementary schools for boys, and it’s difficult to find a girl not in school,” al-Moshaigeh says.

Even in a country where women are barred from driving cars and shops close at prayer time, Qassim has the reputation for being conservative, strictly adhering to the austere interpretation of Wahhabi Islam practiced in the Arab world’s biggest economy. Few cars are on the streets of Buraidah during prayer time, a noticeable difference from the Saudi capital of Riyadh, and all shops are shuttered. The city of 614,000 has a small-town feel, even with significant roadwork and construction under way. There are no women walking alone on the streets, which would be a breach of the city’s conservative code, and most men wear Saudi national dress—a white robe and checkered red-and-white head scarf.