Word: mecca
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...Mecca siege inspires reforms-and fears...
Three months ago, however, a well-armed band of zealous dissidents attacked the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, holiest of all Muslim shrines, and proclaimed one of their leaders the new Mahdi, or messiah. It took Saudi forces nearly two weeks to dislodge the invaders, and the audacious assault has jolted the royal family to its gilded foundations. "They were shocked and embarrassed, to say the least," says a Saudi with close ties to the ruling elite, "but it drew their attention to things they had neglected in the past...
Since the Sacred Mosque siege, the Saudis have reshuffled security and intelligence officials, replaced several top military officers and appointed a new governor for the Mecca district. Crown Prince Fahd has sought to emphasize the royal family's concern for the people by opening roads and schools with great fanfare. In response to growing popular resentment over corruption, he has taken steps to channel government money into showcase welfare projects, including a manpower training program to reduce the country's alarming dependence on foreign labor. To appease fundamentalist religious leaders, Fahd has tightened strictures that forbid women...
Given the contraction of the American economy, one wonders at what point one neglected leak will develop into a flood. Consider, for example, the implications of a coup in Saudi Arabia, the potential for which was starkly revealed in the take-over of the Great Mosque in Mecca--or in Egypt, where expectations of rapid economic development following on the heels of peace with Israel have been irresponsibly fueled by the leadership...
...Washington for several years: local revolts, radicalism, tribal rivalries, religious extremism and instability bordering on anarchy. The oilfields of the Persian Gulf are in jeopardy not so much because of Soviet tanks in Afghanistan as because of local outbreaks like the dissident Arab invasion of the Sacred Mosque in Mecca and the Iranian militants' seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The biggest disaster that has befallen Western interests in the area in the past decade remains the collapse of the Shah?for which Moscow was not responsible. And the worst threat to Western interests in the near future...