Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia
"It's all here-Islam, the family tree, a sea of oil and money to match, palace intrigue...This is high drama and an epic tale."
-Tom Brokaw Though Saudi Arabia sits on one of the richest oil deposits in the world, it also produced fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers. In this immensely important book, journalist Robert Lacey draws on years of access to every circle of Saudi society giving readers the fullest portrait yet of a land straddling the worlds of medievalism and modernity. Moving from the bloody seizure of Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979, through the Persian Gulf War, to the delicate U.S.-Saudi relations in a post 9/11 world, Inside the Kingdom brings recent history to vivid life and offers a powerful story of a country learning how not to be at war with itself.
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Community Reviews
PART ONE - KINGDOM OF GOD
CHAPTER 1 - Angry Face
6/10
The Brothers. It’s quite hard to understand what the dates are or what people he is talking about as we jump from timeline to timeline. This is difficult to understand.
P.S. I wrote these single mini chapter overviews as I read the book. They are written for myself so it’s not detailed or even always a 1-to-1 overview of the main points in the chapter and often I make mistakes as I write them. I have to say that the first half of the book is way too hard to understand for newcomers to the Saudi Arabia topic. But it’s still super fun to listen to.
CHAPTER 2 - The Brothers
6/10
Grand Mosque seizure. A terrorist attack on the Mosque in Mecca in 1979. I don’t quite understand who the terrorists are. He just names them. As if that helps me in any way? They are just random people with Arabic names?
CHAPTER 3 - Siege
8/10
Continued Grand Mosque seizure.
CHAPTER 4 - No Sunni, No Shia
6,5/10
Sunni vs. Shia conflict presented. It’s a curious way to present Muslim history and then present a current event that happened because of that ancient conflict.
CHAPTER 5 - Vox Populi, Vox Dei
6,5/10
The ruler of Saudi Arabia agrees with religious extremists about creating a totalitarian Islamic state and doesn’t even discuss it with his board. He agrees with religious extremists that it for example shouldn’t be legal to print photos of women in newspapers..
CHAPTER 6 - Salafi Soccer
7/10
Bin Laden family creating a building empire. More stories about Muslim extremism.
CHAPTER 7 - Jihad in Afghanistan
7,5/10
Saudi charities and private people are overly eager to donate money to Afghans fighting the atheist Soviets. They work with USA against USSR in Afghanistan.
CHAPTER 8 - Special Relationship
7/10
Friendship with USA. Saudi Arabia promises that if USA creates Israel, they won’t attack it. But in 1973 they still used an oil embargo to punish USA publicly. In reality they still work together behind the scenes. Saudi Arabia does hate Jews.
CHAPTER 9 - Dawn Visitors
6,5/10
A female professor/columnist is taken into a house prison where they are interrogated each day for hours.
The state listens in on journalist phone calls. Much cannot be written about. Women are typically not allowed to do sports.
CHAPTER 10 - Stars in the Heavens
7,5/10
Muslim space engineer works for NASA. Modern flat Earth belief in Saudi Arabia by some religious scholars.
They spend millions on spreading Islam. Oil prices jump up and down creating economic issues.
CHAPTER 11 - Into Exile
6/10
Torture prisons. Shia Musims especially are discriminate against unfairly because Iran tries to create terror attacks in Saudi Arabia.
CHAPTER 12 - The Dove and the East Wind
7/10
Nuclear missiles.This book is hard to understand as the names and events are just mentioned without much intro.
CHAPTER 13 - Vacationing Jihadi
6/10
Saudi Arabian civilians and military fight in Afghanistan, but they are bad and fearful fighters. They also do a ton of secret weapon deals with the West to protect themselves from Iran.
PART TWO - KINGDOM AT WAR
CHAPTER 14 - Desert Storm
6,5/10
Kuwait war including USA. Saudi Arabian women protest to be allowed to drive. There was no law against women driving. It’s just something they culturally couldn’t do.
CHAPTER 15 - Battle for Al-Khafji
7/10
Battle vs. Iraq.
“Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein’s government, then what are you going to put in its place? That’s a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government of Iraq, you could very easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off . . .” - Dick Cheney
CHAPTER 16 - Awakening
7,5/10
Al-Qaeda beginning.
Osama bin Laden can’t sell his holy war idea. The regime would rather work with USA as it’s more structured. But when the rebels return to Saudi Arabia they have plans for their own country too. Osama bin Laden is first a state friend, then becomes irritated with the state as they are not extreme enough. The rebels have a proxy war going on in Yemen. Osama is forced to flee to Afghanistan.
CHAPTER 17 - Stopping the Sins
8/10
Terrorist action vs. people who are not religious enough. A story about a group burning down a video store then a club for women. These people of course end up in prison.
A group of experts advise the leader to use experts as advisers. Many religious people hate it and attack the “Western” oriented leader.
Satellite dishes are largely banned to control the flow of information.
CHAPTER 18 - In from the Cold
7,5/10
After Shia Muslims in Saudi Arabia help the regime the leadership discusses terms with them. Shia Muslims rather work with Saudi Arabia than Iraq/Saddam Hussain who is killing them.
CHAPTER 19 - Change of Heart
7/10
Osama bin Laden interview by journalist Jamal Khashoggi - who was later murdered in Turkey by Saudi Arabia years after the book was published.
CHAPTER 20 - Enter the Crown Prince
7/10
About the new leader of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz. He wants to cut spending. But the population has low IQ and it’s hard to make them work and produce a big income.
CHAPTER 21 - The Students
8/10
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan help Taliban gain power in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden flees to Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia tell them to make sure he doesn’t speak up against their regime. Besides this he is ignored as he is just a weird loser not a terrorist.
CHAPTER 22 - Infinite Reach
7,5/10
Saudi Arabia negotiates with Taliban to get Osama bin Laden back and stop his more extreme operations. But Taliban by this point are proud of him putting them on the worldmap. The negotiations break down.
“We traveled everywhere with a hand grenade,” Khaled remembers. “It was much better protection than a pistol. If there was any trouble with an Afghan, you’d just remove the pin and wave it in front of them. ‘I came here to die,’ you’d say. You could see the fear in their eyes. They would kill you for a hundred dollars—so you had to scare them by acting crazy.” Khaled was devout, but he had little respect for the religiosity of the Taliban. “It was just a mask,” he says today. “And, in my opinion, a mask for racism.
CHAPTER 23 - New Century
7/10
Arafat and Clinton take money from Saudi Arabia without giving anything in return. Both are liars.
The new leader of Saudi Arabia is very pro Palestine and the USA friendship with George W. Bush cools. He sees a video of a Israily soldier attacking a Palestine woman and is outraged. The US president sends a very positive letter to Saudi Arabia supporting the two states idea. And suddenly Saudi Arabia is keen to negotiate again. But then 9/11 happens.
PART THREE - AL-QAEDA COMES HOME
CHAPTER 24 - Fifteen Flying Saudis
8/10
Some in Saudi Arabia say 3000 Jews didn’t turn up for work on 9/11. Others say that claiming this is a conspiracy takes away from the Muslims who did 9/11, most of who are Saudi.
Saudi Arabian leadership on the other hand now does see they have to tackle the problem. But FBI sends their worst men to Saudi Arabia as they want to focus on success in USA.
The rulership makes it clear they are not anti-Islam like Iran as the religious scholars are just advicers. Many see Saudi Arabia as a dualism system which is why the leadership had to speak out.
CHAPTER 25 - Fire
8/10
A fire in a girl school causes the girls to try to escape without their veils. But they are stopped by the religious guards. The firefighters are also not allowed to help. 15 girls die. Girl schools are then moved from the religious sector to the state sector where the boys schools are already.
A high ranking government leader is a bit more liberal than what people want. He gets a ton of hate messages.
“It was a bad message on a bad day,” he recalls. “I can’t remember exactly what it said—‘You enemy of God. You miserable gay. You homosexual. ’ It was something like that, and I’d had enough. ‘Go to hell!’ I thought. So I texted back, ‘You whore.’ ”
For his reply, and his overall liberal ideas, he is sentenced to 75 lashes. But he complains about this in NYT and quietly his punishment goes away as the leadership protects him.
After reading more about this story on Wikipedia, yeah I’m no expert here let’s face it, I see another image of the events. The Saudi Arabian investigation DID blame the religious leadership so they didn’t mind blaming them. But they denied the rumors about the locked doors. So what actually happened? Why would the Saudi Arabic investigation not be afraid to blame the illegal fire hazards, but then lie about the locked doors? I don’t know what happened, but either way the religious extremists had too many students in the school and are guilty. I don’t think they were trying to keep them locked there. That’s extreme for even extremists.
CHAPTER 26 - Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
7,5/10
As Americans kick out Saudi Arabic Al-Qauda terrorists from Afghanistan they flee to Saudi Arabia and create terror attacks there. These Osama bin Laden attacks infuriate Saudi Arabian leadership. People just can’t support them anymore when they are the victims. Saudi Arabia was somewhat against most terrorism prior to this, but this makes it clear what to do.
A liberal TV host jokes about the conditions in Saudi Arabia and is fired. Sad stuff. But he made jokes about the country’s budget so this was coming. It seems like you can criticize most things in Saudi Arabia, but if you mention the budget or state leaders they will punish you.
CHAPTER 27 - Prodigal Sons
7/10
Guantanamo Bay. A prisoner figures out they are in Cuba. The treatment is very harsh.
- And as for the Puerto Rican guards, they really hated the Americans. They saw themselves as Yanqee slaves. On the second anniversary of 9/11, they gave us the thumbs-up. At mealtimes they would get us special spicy food. ‘You are soldiers,’ they said. ‘You fought for your cause like anyone else.’ ”
When a terrorist is sent to Saudi Arabia the prison is way better. They are treated better and soon he is even freed and gets his old job back. The state actually gives these guys money for a wife and gives them jobs. So being a former terrorist is a great gig.
When a terrorist dies the state takes care of the family so that no one else can get to them. They also use religious reeducation and invite families to help out with this.
A Guantanamo Bay prisoner dies with 2 others. Americans say it’s suicide. But his family in Saudi Arabia refuse to believe it. Suicide is sinful in Islam. Americans also claim a bunch of prisoners wrote suicide notes together, but those notes are never shown.
CHAPTER 28 - King Abdullah
8/10
The old king dies. The royal families lived lavishly before. Now some of their private jets are cut by the new king. He also moves towards a more democratic regime where leaders get together to discuss things.
A journalist criticizes everyone who goes against the king by writing an article critical of the religious rulers. The king praises his article. The journalist says he wants to write more, but he is getting attacked for this one so who will protect him? “I” says the king.
CHAPTER 29 - Girls of Saudi
6/10
Feminists in Saudi Arabia. A very outspoken feminist is a center character here.
A bi-sexual woman tells her story. This all is too weird and personal for me. A ton of generalization here based on anecdotes.
A Turkish TV show with a kind husband and a free wife gets very popular and religious scholars attack it. But yet again the author just claims it is so. There is not much evidence for a single thing in this chapter.
CHAPTER 30 - Illegitimate Occupation
7/10
Geopolitics. Saudi Arabia doesn’t want USA to attack Saddam Hussain after 9/11. USA just wants to punish bad Islamic nations. But Hussain keeps Shias at bay so Saudi Arabia wants to keep him. They also push hard for a Palestinian state and even run daily pro Palestine propaganda in Saudi Arabia.
Neoconservatives totally ignore the Saudi advice not to start a war in the Middle East. This leads to a cooling relationship. Saudi Arabia allows USA to attack from their bases there. But after that they must pack up and leave the bases. So in 2003 they all leave the country. Ironically Osama bin Laden, who hates Saudi Arabia, had this as one of his demands 2 years prior.
CHAPTER 31 - End of the Affair
8/10
Saudi Arabia now looks outside USA as they are still angry about USA attacking Iraq “for their oil”. They work with Pakistan to get atomic bombs. With China as they share the view that totalitarian states are fine and should be left alone. With Russia as they control the oil market together and can buy weapons from Russia too.
USA oil companies now don’t get preferred treatment either.
CHAPTER 32 - Condition of the People
7,5/10
A man acquires a document to be allowed to live with a woman. She is in love with him. But at one point she gave her photo to her friend who then gave it to a man. In Saudi Arabia men request photos as otherwise you can’t really check out women. She wanted the photo back because her husband was the possessive type. But the guy would only give it back if he got to meet her alone. As she was meeting him a car drove up to them both and kidnapped them. She thought they were his friends, but they raped both for a long time. The gang figured no one would tell on them as the community does not talk about this stuff. But she finally told her story as it was rumored she had been with a man. Her husband investigates the case. There was no DNA or other evidence as she hid the rape, but she tells him they smelled. The husband goes to a fishmarket and they find them. They admit to it, but later they recant. So now the court only have her confession that she had extramarrital sex and proof that she was meeting a man. So she is given a prison sentence and a lashing sentence alongside the rapists. But she is later pardoned.
Overall the harsh sentences work. People leave their cars unlocked, no one is getting mugged.
My final opinion on the book
The audiobook felt long. Not overly long, but not a short read. All chapters feel like their own stories with tons of Arabic names and events. This is not a simple book.
The chapters jump into a story and move from point to point. At times it’s hard to understand why the author is not giving us intros to things. When a story suddenly starts with a terrorist attack on the holiest place in Islam it feels fake. I had to look it up online to make sure it’s real. All stories are written this jarring way with a similar all knowing narrator. Yet the school fire story, single anecdotes, and crime stories may not be fully true. The author focuses on the outrage, big story and negatives. Much of this is not fully true. I’m even reading up on this on progressive Wikipedia and don’t fully recognize the stories he is telling as it’s quite clear it’s not nearly as bad or outrageous. It would be like writing a book about USA and then use the most extreme court cases to prove that the country is overall bad. It’s not wrong, but it is biased. The author wants to present an anti-Saudi Arabia case with focus on feminism while ignoring the good things religion may bring with it.
It’s a very good book. I started to feel a stronger connection to Saudi Arabia. Before I felt it was a weird unknown backwards country. After reading the book Saudi Arabia now has the East Germany style of fascination to it. And it’s a relatively free country compared to many such authoritarian states. They have media, internet, many immigrants, they can freely travel. This is not China. They of course have a very strong religious core, but it’s part of their culture. Both men and women want it this way. And actually, many of the leaders fight the religious scholars because they want the full power themselves. So it’s not like China where the 1 single leader declares his own 1 single religion to be true and rules everything by himself. Here the leaders are constantly pulling the country into democracy while the population is often pushing back. And the progress has been great and stable. Compared to Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan post their wars this is a relatively safe, stable, and clearly progressing place to live. Since the book was published they have made huge progress. So maybe post 2009 and a few more years removed from 9/11 this author could present a more fair and balanced view of Saudi Arabia, a state we all loved to hate post 9/11. I also really like how strong their culture is. Humans overall need belonging. If they don’t have a religion they will find another one: Communism, identity politics, or radical Islam. Saudi Arabia knows this. They know that their religion is maybe essential to make sure the population can remain calm.
I like the book. It’s like exploring a world you have never seen. It feels like reading about a huge historical event you have never even heard about before. But at the same time the book is weird. The jarring way to just throw us from story to story with no intros was not ideal for me as an outsider to the topic. I had to look up a few names and events to get into the stories. It’s dense, there are so many ideas and stories here.
It could also use a more critical source investigation. He says his first book about Saudi Arabia was banned as he refused to edit 20 or so statements. But after reading this book I actually understand why a country would ban this stuff. It’s not just fact-based history. It’s his view of Saudi Arabia seen through his feminist lence where Saudi Arabia is presented as wrong as they are not Western. But the statements by the leaders in the book are clear, there is a middle way, the way they are taking, slow change without an extreme and dangerous revolution.
I’m not a fan of the way they do things. Imprisoning non-criminal people because of religious laws is silly. But I also understand that the system does in fact work and is quite good for a low IQ and extreme population. It’s not a rebel culture.
The book won’t really make you understand all the characters or the monarchy. But the stories will stick with you. Watch a documentary on the full monarchy of Saudi Arabia. Otherwise you will get confused by the names.
CHAPTER 1 - Angry Face
6/10
The Brothers. It’s quite hard to understand what the dates are or what people he is talking about as we jump from timeline to timeline. This is difficult to understand.
P.S. I wrote these single mini chapter overviews as I read the book. They are written for myself so it’s not detailed or even always a 1-to-1 overview of the main points in the chapter and often I make mistakes as I write them. I have to say that the first half of the book is way too hard to understand for newcomers to the Saudi Arabia topic. But it’s still super fun to listen to.
CHAPTER 2 - The Brothers
6/10
Grand Mosque seizure. A terrorist attack on the Mosque in Mecca in 1979. I don’t quite understand who the terrorists are. He just names them. As if that helps me in any way? They are just random people with Arabic names?
CHAPTER 3 - Siege
8/10
Continued Grand Mosque seizure.
CHAPTER 4 - No Sunni, No Shia
6,5/10
Sunni vs. Shia conflict presented. It’s a curious way to present Muslim history and then present a current event that happened because of that ancient conflict.
CHAPTER 5 - Vox Populi, Vox Dei
6,5/10
The ruler of Saudi Arabia agrees with religious extremists about creating a totalitarian Islamic state and doesn’t even discuss it with his board. He agrees with religious extremists that it for example shouldn’t be legal to print photos of women in newspapers..
CHAPTER 6 - Salafi Soccer
7/10
Bin Laden family creating a building empire. More stories about Muslim extremism.
CHAPTER 7 - Jihad in Afghanistan
7,5/10
Saudi charities and private people are overly eager to donate money to Afghans fighting the atheist Soviets. They work with USA against USSR in Afghanistan.
CHAPTER 8 - Special Relationship
7/10
Friendship with USA. Saudi Arabia promises that if USA creates Israel, they won’t attack it. But in 1973 they still used an oil embargo to punish USA publicly. In reality they still work together behind the scenes. Saudi Arabia does hate Jews.
CHAPTER 9 - Dawn Visitors
6,5/10
A female professor/columnist is taken into a house prison where they are interrogated each day for hours.
The state listens in on journalist phone calls. Much cannot be written about. Women are typically not allowed to do sports.
CHAPTER 10 - Stars in the Heavens
7,5/10
Muslim space engineer works for NASA. Modern flat Earth belief in Saudi Arabia by some religious scholars.
They spend millions on spreading Islam. Oil prices jump up and down creating economic issues.
CHAPTER 11 - Into Exile
6/10
Torture prisons. Shia Musims especially are discriminate against unfairly because Iran tries to create terror attacks in Saudi Arabia.
CHAPTER 12 - The Dove and the East Wind
7/10
Nuclear missiles.This book is hard to understand as the names and events are just mentioned without much intro.
CHAPTER 13 - Vacationing Jihadi
6/10
Saudi Arabian civilians and military fight in Afghanistan, but they are bad and fearful fighters. They also do a ton of secret weapon deals with the West to protect themselves from Iran.
PART TWO - KINGDOM AT WAR
CHAPTER 14 - Desert Storm
6,5/10
Kuwait war including USA. Saudi Arabian women protest to be allowed to drive. There was no law against women driving. It’s just something they culturally couldn’t do.
CHAPTER 15 - Battle for Al-Khafji
7/10
Battle vs. Iraq.
“Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein’s government, then what are you going to put in its place? That’s a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government of Iraq, you could very easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off . . .” - Dick Cheney
CHAPTER 16 - Awakening
7,5/10
Al-Qaeda beginning.
Osama bin Laden can’t sell his holy war idea. The regime would rather work with USA as it’s more structured. But when the rebels return to Saudi Arabia they have plans for their own country too. Osama bin Laden is first a state friend, then becomes irritated with the state as they are not extreme enough. The rebels have a proxy war going on in Yemen. Osama is forced to flee to Afghanistan.
CHAPTER 17 - Stopping the Sins
8/10
Terrorist action vs. people who are not religious enough. A story about a group burning down a video store then a club for women. These people of course end up in prison.
A group of experts advise the leader to use experts as advisers. Many religious people hate it and attack the “Western” oriented leader.
Satellite dishes are largely banned to control the flow of information.
CHAPTER 18 - In from the Cold
7,5/10
After Shia Muslims in Saudi Arabia help the regime the leadership discusses terms with them. Shia Muslims rather work with Saudi Arabia than Iraq/Saddam Hussain who is killing them.
CHAPTER 19 - Change of Heart
7/10
Osama bin Laden interview by journalist Jamal Khashoggi - who was later murdered in Turkey by Saudi Arabia years after the book was published.
CHAPTER 20 - Enter the Crown Prince
7/10
About the new leader of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz. He wants to cut spending. But the population has low IQ and it’s hard to make them work and produce a big income.
CHAPTER 21 - The Students
8/10
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan help Taliban gain power in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden flees to Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia tell them to make sure he doesn’t speak up against their regime. Besides this he is ignored as he is just a weird loser not a terrorist.
CHAPTER 22 - Infinite Reach
7,5/10
Saudi Arabia negotiates with Taliban to get Osama bin Laden back and stop his more extreme operations. But Taliban by this point are proud of him putting them on the worldmap. The negotiations break down.
“We traveled everywhere with a hand grenade,” Khaled remembers. “It was much better protection than a pistol. If there was any trouble with an Afghan, you’d just remove the pin and wave it in front of them. ‘I came here to die,’ you’d say. You could see the fear in their eyes. They would kill you for a hundred dollars—so you had to scare them by acting crazy.” Khaled was devout, but he had little respect for the religiosity of the Taliban. “It was just a mask,” he says today. “And, in my opinion, a mask for racism.
CHAPTER 23 - New Century
7/10
Arafat and Clinton take money from Saudi Arabia without giving anything in return. Both are liars.
The new leader of Saudi Arabia is very pro Palestine and the USA friendship with George W. Bush cools. He sees a video of a Israily soldier attacking a Palestine woman and is outraged. The US president sends a very positive letter to Saudi Arabia supporting the two states idea. And suddenly Saudi Arabia is keen to negotiate again. But then 9/11 happens.
PART THREE - AL-QAEDA COMES HOME
CHAPTER 24 - Fifteen Flying Saudis
8/10
Some in Saudi Arabia say 3000 Jews didn’t turn up for work on 9/11. Others say that claiming this is a conspiracy takes away from the Muslims who did 9/11, most of who are Saudi.
Saudi Arabian leadership on the other hand now does see they have to tackle the problem. But FBI sends their worst men to Saudi Arabia as they want to focus on success in USA.
The rulership makes it clear they are not anti-Islam like Iran as the religious scholars are just advicers. Many see Saudi Arabia as a dualism system which is why the leadership had to speak out.
CHAPTER 25 - Fire
8/10
A fire in a girl school causes the girls to try to escape without their veils. But they are stopped by the religious guards. The firefighters are also not allowed to help. 15 girls die. Girl schools are then moved from the religious sector to the state sector where the boys schools are already.
A high ranking government leader is a bit more liberal than what people want. He gets a ton of hate messages.
“It was a bad message on a bad day,” he recalls. “I can’t remember exactly what it said—‘You enemy of God. You miserable gay. You homosexual. ’ It was something like that, and I’d had enough. ‘Go to hell!’ I thought. So I texted back, ‘You whore.’ ”
For his reply, and his overall liberal ideas, he is sentenced to 75 lashes. But he complains about this in NYT and quietly his punishment goes away as the leadership protects him.
After reading more about this story on Wikipedia, yeah I’m no expert here let’s face it, I see another image of the events. The Saudi Arabian investigation DID blame the religious leadership so they didn’t mind blaming them. But they denied the rumors about the locked doors. So what actually happened? Why would the Saudi Arabic investigation not be afraid to blame the illegal fire hazards, but then lie about the locked doors? I don’t know what happened, but either way the religious extremists had too many students in the school and are guilty. I don’t think they were trying to keep them locked there. That’s extreme for even extremists.
CHAPTER 26 - Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
7,5/10
As Americans kick out Saudi Arabic Al-Qauda terrorists from Afghanistan they flee to Saudi Arabia and create terror attacks there. These Osama bin Laden attacks infuriate Saudi Arabian leadership. People just can’t support them anymore when they are the victims. Saudi Arabia was somewhat against most terrorism prior to this, but this makes it clear what to do.
A liberal TV host jokes about the conditions in Saudi Arabia and is fired. Sad stuff. But he made jokes about the country’s budget so this was coming. It seems like you can criticize most things in Saudi Arabia, but if you mention the budget or state leaders they will punish you.
CHAPTER 27 - Prodigal Sons
7/10
Guantanamo Bay. A prisoner figures out they are in Cuba. The treatment is very harsh.
- And as for the Puerto Rican guards, they really hated the Americans. They saw themselves as Yanqee slaves. On the second anniversary of 9/11, they gave us the thumbs-up. At mealtimes they would get us special spicy food. ‘You are soldiers,’ they said. ‘You fought for your cause like anyone else.’ ”
When a terrorist is sent to Saudi Arabia the prison is way better. They are treated better and soon he is even freed and gets his old job back. The state actually gives these guys money for a wife and gives them jobs. So being a former terrorist is a great gig.
When a terrorist dies the state takes care of the family so that no one else can get to them. They also use religious reeducation and invite families to help out with this.
A Guantanamo Bay prisoner dies with 2 others. Americans say it’s suicide. But his family in Saudi Arabia refuse to believe it. Suicide is sinful in Islam. Americans also claim a bunch of prisoners wrote suicide notes together, but those notes are never shown.
CHAPTER 28 - King Abdullah
8/10
The old king dies. The royal families lived lavishly before. Now some of their private jets are cut by the new king. He also moves towards a more democratic regime where leaders get together to discuss things.
A journalist criticizes everyone who goes against the king by writing an article critical of the religious rulers. The king praises his article. The journalist says he wants to write more, but he is getting attacked for this one so who will protect him? “I” says the king.
CHAPTER 29 - Girls of Saudi
6/10
Feminists in Saudi Arabia. A very outspoken feminist is a center character here.
A bi-sexual woman tells her story. This all is too weird and personal for me. A ton of generalization here based on anecdotes.
A Turkish TV show with a kind husband and a free wife gets very popular and religious scholars attack it. But yet again the author just claims it is so. There is not much evidence for a single thing in this chapter.
CHAPTER 30 - Illegitimate Occupation
7/10
Geopolitics. Saudi Arabia doesn’t want USA to attack Saddam Hussain after 9/11. USA just wants to punish bad Islamic nations. But Hussain keeps Shias at bay so Saudi Arabia wants to keep him. They also push hard for a Palestinian state and even run daily pro Palestine propaganda in Saudi Arabia.
Neoconservatives totally ignore the Saudi advice not to start a war in the Middle East. This leads to a cooling relationship. Saudi Arabia allows USA to attack from their bases there. But after that they must pack up and leave the bases. So in 2003 they all leave the country. Ironically Osama bin Laden, who hates Saudi Arabia, had this as one of his demands 2 years prior.
CHAPTER 31 - End of the Affair
8/10
Saudi Arabia now looks outside USA as they are still angry about USA attacking Iraq “for their oil”. They work with Pakistan to get atomic bombs. With China as they share the view that totalitarian states are fine and should be left alone. With Russia as they control the oil market together and can buy weapons from Russia too.
USA oil companies now don’t get preferred treatment either.
CHAPTER 32 - Condition of the People
7,5/10
A man acquires a document to be allowed to live with a woman. She is in love with him. But at one point she gave her photo to her friend who then gave it to a man. In Saudi Arabia men request photos as otherwise you can’t really check out women. She wanted the photo back because her husband was the possessive type. But the guy would only give it back if he got to meet her alone. As she was meeting him a car drove up to them both and kidnapped them. She thought they were his friends, but they raped both for a long time. The gang figured no one would tell on them as the community does not talk about this stuff. But she finally told her story as it was rumored she had been with a man. Her husband investigates the case. There was no DNA or other evidence as she hid the rape, but she tells him they smelled. The husband goes to a fishmarket and they find them. They admit to it, but later they recant. So now the court only have her confession that she had extramarrital sex and proof that she was meeting a man. So she is given a prison sentence and a lashing sentence alongside the rapists. But she is later pardoned.
Overall the harsh sentences work. People leave their cars unlocked, no one is getting mugged.
My final opinion on the book
The audiobook felt long. Not overly long, but not a short read. All chapters feel like their own stories with tons of Arabic names and events. This is not a simple book.
The chapters jump into a story and move from point to point. At times it’s hard to understand why the author is not giving us intros to things. When a story suddenly starts with a terrorist attack on the holiest place in Islam it feels fake. I had to look it up online to make sure it’s real. All stories are written this jarring way with a similar all knowing narrator. Yet the school fire story, single anecdotes, and crime stories may not be fully true. The author focuses on the outrage, big story and negatives. Much of this is not fully true. I’m even reading up on this on progressive Wikipedia and don’t fully recognize the stories he is telling as it’s quite clear it’s not nearly as bad or outrageous. It would be like writing a book about USA and then use the most extreme court cases to prove that the country is overall bad. It’s not wrong, but it is biased. The author wants to present an anti-Saudi Arabia case with focus on feminism while ignoring the good things religion may bring with it.
It’s a very good book. I started to feel a stronger connection to Saudi Arabia. Before I felt it was a weird unknown backwards country. After reading the book Saudi Arabia now has the East Germany style of fascination to it. And it’s a relatively free country compared to many such authoritarian states. They have media, internet, many immigrants, they can freely travel. This is not China. They of course have a very strong religious core, but it’s part of their culture. Both men and women want it this way. And actually, many of the leaders fight the religious scholars because they want the full power themselves. So it’s not like China where the 1 single leader declares his own 1 single religion to be true and rules everything by himself. Here the leaders are constantly pulling the country into democracy while the population is often pushing back. And the progress has been great and stable. Compared to Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan post their wars this is a relatively safe, stable, and clearly progressing place to live. Since the book was published they have made huge progress. So maybe post 2009 and a few more years removed from 9/11 this author could present a more fair and balanced view of Saudi Arabia, a state we all loved to hate post 9/11. I also really like how strong their culture is. Humans overall need belonging. If they don’t have a religion they will find another one: Communism, identity politics, or radical Islam. Saudi Arabia knows this. They know that their religion is maybe essential to make sure the population can remain calm.
I like the book. It’s like exploring a world you have never seen. It feels like reading about a huge historical event you have never even heard about before. But at the same time the book is weird. The jarring way to just throw us from story to story with no intros was not ideal for me as an outsider to the topic. I had to look up a few names and events to get into the stories. It’s dense, there are so many ideas and stories here.
It could also use a more critical source investigation. He says his first book about Saudi Arabia was banned as he refused to edit 20 or so statements. But after reading this book I actually understand why a country would ban this stuff. It’s not just fact-based history. It’s his view of Saudi Arabia seen through his feminist lence where Saudi Arabia is presented as wrong as they are not Western. But the statements by the leaders in the book are clear, there is a middle way, the way they are taking, slow change without an extreme and dangerous revolution.
I’m not a fan of the way they do things. Imprisoning non-criminal people because of religious laws is silly. But I also understand that the system does in fact work and is quite good for a low IQ and extreme population. It’s not a rebel culture.
The book won’t really make you understand all the characters or the monarchy. But the stories will stick with you. Watch a documentary on the full monarchy of Saudi Arabia. Otherwise you will get confused by the names.
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