Contesting the Saudi State: Islamic Voices from a New Generation

The terms Wahhabi or Salafi are seen as interchangeable and frequently misunderstood by outsiders. However, as Madawi al-Rasheed explains in a fascinating exploration of Saudi Arabia in the twenty-first century, even Saudis do not agree on their meaning. Under the influence of mass education, printing, new communication technology, and global media, they are forming their own conclusions and debating religion and politics in traditional and novel venues, often violating official taboos and the conservative values of the Saudi society. Drawing on classical religious sources, contemporary readings and interviews, Al-Rasheed presents an ethnography of consent and contest, exploring the fluidity of the boundaries between the religious and political. Bridging the gap between text and context, the author also examines how states and citizens manipulate religious discourse for purely political ends, and how this manipulation generates unpredictable reactions whose control escapes those who initiated them.

Under the influence of mass education, printing, new communication technology, and global media, Saudi Arabia is transforming. For the first time, Saudis are openly debating religion and politics, often in violation of official taboos, and seeking answers that threaten to dismantle age old authoritarian interpretations. Drawing on her extensive knowledge of the region and through personal interviews, Madawi Al-Rasheed explores this dilemma, and how, in consequence and with the rise of multiple interpretations of religious texts, the traditional consenting Wahhabi discourse is losing its hold on the new generation.

Madawi Al-Rasheed is Professor of Social Anthropology at King's College, University of London. Her publications include Politics in an Arabian Oasis (1991); A History of Saudi Arabia (2002); (with R. Vitalis) Counter Narratives: History, Contemporary Politics, and Society in Saudi Arabia and Yemen (2004); and Transnational Connections and the Arab Gulf (2005).

Glossary; Maps; Introduction; 1. Consenting subjects: official Wahhabi religio-political discourse; 2. Re-enchanting politics: Sahwis from contestation to co-optation; 3. Struggling for the way of God abroad: from localism to transnationalism; 4. Struggling for the way of God at home: the politics and poetics of jihad; 5. Debating Salafis: Lewis Atiyat Allah and the jihad obligation; 6. Searching for the unmediated word of God; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.