Saudi Arabia: changes and challenges

Abstract

Saudi Arabia founded as a result of an alliance between emir of Ad-Diriyah Muhammad bin Saud and Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al- -Wahhab. The alliance that known as Diriyah Treaty was the base that allowed Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab to provide religious cover for the rule of the Saud family, also their military conquests against the emirates and other tribes in the Arabian Peninsula. On the other hand, Saud family helped Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab to spread the Salafist doctrine1 of Islam. Thus, since its establishment, Saudi Arabia has become an Islamic state of a radical Salafi/Wahhabism character, which adopts a radi cal Salafi ideology. Saudi Arabia also worked to harness all its resources as a rich oil state and as a reference for the Islamic world because it contains the Islamic holy places to spread the Salafist/Wahhabism to achieve hegemony and influence in both Islamic and international arenas.