The Saudi government recently announced new regulations on Media coverage -- criticism of official religious figures is forbidden. We suppose this applies to criticism from any direction -- from those who say the official imam is too liberal, and from those who criticize the official stance as too conservative. However, our American bias toward openness is uncomfortable with such a directive, and we worry about the consequences of stifling debate. There are several dimensions to such debates here: regarding basic interpretations of Islam, regarding attitudes toward different Islamic sects, regarding women's role in society, and the very role of religion in society, all particularly complicated when the society is clearly established as an Islamic state (they finesse the point of what sort of sectarian state it is, claiming simple hegemony over the holy sites: we are constantly reminded that the King's primary title is Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques ) Another recent
Log of our travels and thoughts.