Word: saudis
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...Images of close fraternity between the rulers of the United States and the desert kingdom were evident throughout Riyadh. Along highways and on landmarks, the stars and stripes flapped alongside the green Saudi flag to honor Obama's visit. A graphic logo on Saudi television's coverage of the event depicted Obama and Abdullah in the corner of the screen, their faces nearly touching. (See pictures of Obama in Saudi Arabia...
...home country of most of the 9/11 hijackers. The Kingdom supported Operation Desert Storm in 1991, in which a U.S. multinational force drove Iraqi invaders out of Kuwait, and its Prince Sultan Air Base served as a command-and-control center for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Saudi Arabia has also championed a two-state solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, offering full normalization of relations with the Jewish state if it withdraws from Arab territory conquered in the war of 1967. And as the leader of the Sunni Arab world, it has joined with Washington...
...Saudi Arabia is certainly a challenging environment for U.S. leaders, given its approach to questions of human rights and democracy. Ruled by a hereditary monarchy, the country is governed under a strict interpretation of Islamic Shari'a law that sharply restricts the rights of women, and it empowers clerical bodies like the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice to police civil society. Days before Obama's visit, a man convicted of a double murder was beheaded by sword and then hung on a cross in a public square in downtown Riyadh...
...According to a recent Gallup poll, less than a third of Saudi's 28 million inhabitants approve of U.S. leadership, a sharp contrast to the close cooperation between the two nations' governments. The Saudi kingdom prohibits the study of evolution, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Western music or Western philosophy in its universities, according to the U.S. State Department. The public practice of non-Muslim religions is prohibited, and the Shi'ite minority, which makes up 8% to 10% of the population, faces significant official discrimination...
...foothold in the nation. Though ads for alcohol are blacked out of imported magazines, an Arabic version of MTV, featuring shows like My Super Sweet Sixteen, is shown in hotel rooms and via satellite dishes that are readily available throughout the country (though not officially permitted). Mai Yamani, a Saudi scholar who is the daughter of former Oil Minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani, describes an ongoing political tension within the government between more secular reformists and traditionalists, for which there is no clear resolution. "Abdullah's strategy is one of political appeasement," Yamani wrote in a recent article on the nation...