Cradle of Islam

Saudi Arabia conjures up all kinds of images from being the birthplace of Islam to a petroland tightly controlled by the House of Saud and the heartland of Wahhabi teachings and practices. Compared to several other Muslim countries, the kingdom is often discreetly absent from prying media eyes whereas in-depth academic studies are even more sparse compared to journalistic outpourings. On the one hand, it is perhaps one of the most plural places on earth attracting various Muslim ethnicities, classes and nationalities both for Hajj and [Umrah, while concurrently their ruling elite has so far successively kept the media pundits at bay. Views about Saudi Arabia vary from pious veneration by virtue of being the cradle of Islam to its denigration as a tight- lipped, monopolistic monarchy where things happen in a hush-hush manner with no dissent tolerated. It is also seen as a cultural monolith where everybody follows a uniformist life—often humourless and thin on artistic aesthetes—and where women, and minorities, such as the Shi[ahs and Sufis, are abysmally marginalized. The close interdependence between the Saudi royalty and Wahhabi clergy transmits images of a society and state frozen in a time where diversity, cultural accomplishments, academic freedom, political dissent and bridges across gender and nationalities do not exist.