In January, 2022, Saudi Arabia announced that the following month, on February 22nd, 2022, the kingdom would begin celebrating a new national holiday. This celebration, termed “Founding Day,” pushed back the inception of the nation…
The Saudi reforms launched by Mohammed bin Salman (often referred to in media as MBS) have been underpinned by a fundamental ideological claim: that Saudi Arabia has turned the page on Wahhabi Islam, which having…
The modern use of the term Salafism is ambiguous and confusing. This ambiguity becomes apparent when many Salafis themselves are not entirely clear about what Salafism entails, assuming that it is simply to follow the…
On October 19, 2016, Mohammad Alyahya, a political analyst focusing on the Gulf region, published an opinion piece in the New York Times exhorting his readers to resist the hasty association of Wahhabism with terrorism….
The centrality of religion in Saudi Arabia pervades both society and the state as a source of political legitimacy and a guide to public and private life. It is also a source of identity and…