THESE are jittery times in Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy that prefers to script its political changes many years in advance. Over the past two weeks, police have arrested dozens of public figures who seem to have little in common. The most prominent is Salman al-Ouda, a popular cleric who dispenses religious advice to his 14m followers on Twitter. But the list also reportedly includes writers, human-rights activists and even officials from the justice ministry. On September 11th Mr Ouda’s brother, Khalid, criticised his arrest on Twitter: “It has revealed the size of the demagoguery we enjoy.” The authorities soon rounded him up, too.
The kingdom’s motives, as ever, are opaque. The arrests came ahead of September 15th, when a loose coalition of activists had called for protests to demand more political freedom. The appointed date came and went quietly—in part because of a heavy police presence on city streets. Saudi...Continue reading
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