What are the liberal parties/movements in Saudi Arabia?

Factual Questions
1

I’ve been reading some short books and articles on Saudi Arabia recently and several mention “liberal movements” or “liberal parties”; none however have given names. I’d like to do more research on them to find out what qualifies as liberal in an Islamic theocracy, but googling “Saudi Arabia” and liberal (or variations of same) haven’t been much help.

Does anybody know the actual names of any liberal movements or parties in Saudi Arabia?

Thanks.

2

Can’t answer your question directly Sampiro ( the only “liberal” name that springs to mind was the eventually exiled Prince Talall in the 1960’s ). I will say that in general ( and according to most analysts ) the conservative opposition seems much better positioned and stronger than there liberal counterparts. Which makes sense, given the structure of Saudi society.

However I posted mainly because I thought you might find this rather balanced ( IMHO ) short article of interest. It briefly addresses the issue of the current state of reform and stability of Saudi Arabia:

http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/2004/feb/gauseFeb04.asp

  • Tamerlane
3

Thanks, Tamerlane. That is an interesting article and I look forward to surfing the rest of that site as well. (I always tend to forget to include .mil when I’m doing contemporary research even though the military is more likely to have up-to-date info on foreign countries than most government agencies.)