Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent

Few books on Saudi Arabia deal with primary sources in examining internal Saudi dissent. In contrast, Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent relies on field work and the analysis of more than one hundred taped sermons by Saudi Islamic activists, examining their personal backgrounds, their rhetoric, and their strategies. Mamoun Fandy traces the evolution of Islamic opposition in Saudi Arabia, focusing on the Gulf War and its aftermath and scrutinizing the works of Safar al Hawali and Salman al-Auda. He also documents the history of the Shi’a Reform Movement and its leader, Sheik Hassan al-Safar, of Mohammed al-Mas’ari and his Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights, of Sa’d al-Faqih and the Movement of Islamic Reform in Arabia, and finally the radical Osama bin Laden and his organization. By analyzing the Saudi opposition’s use of modern technologies of communication and discussing the ways in which supposedly fundamentalist thinkers have been influenced by global debates and events, Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent contributes significantly to the theoretical debate on domination and resistance in the current age of globalization and postmodernity.

MAMOUN FANDY is Professor of Politics at the Center for Contemporary Studies, Georgetown University. He spent two years in Saudi Arabia researching this book.