"Saudi moment"

The expression used by Professor Muhammad Hassanein Heikal in the mid-seventies of the last century was the “Saudi era” to denote the status that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had reached in the Middle East. The Kingdom had achieved its position through a package of elements that gathered the world’s discovery that oil has become a pivotal commodity for the modern era, with all its mechanization in the civil and military industries, and more than that, oil is concentrated in the Gulf region, and Saudi Arabia is at the forefront of it in production and reserves that guarantee this production for decades to come.

OPEC had become a tight organization capable of managing supply and demand for the important commodity. As for “OAPEC”, which constitutes the Arab version of the mother organization, it rolled up its sleeves to use the “oil weapon” during the October 1973 war. The meeting of oil with Arab blood in one battle made the world talk about whether there was a birth of an important Arab pole . This did not happen at the time, but what was recorded globally is that the Middle East is no longer what it used to be. Especially since oil prices and its financial returns have become part of the movement of money and the global economy. The “Saudi era” was an expression of the high coefficient of influence and influence in the region, which absorbed much of the international attention that the East Asian region was in, as the Vietnamese war affected it.

The “Saudi moment” is different from that in some matters, but in another way it is an extension of it. If dr. Abd al-Khaliq Abdullah, a professor of political science, has already published in more than one context of his work on the “Gulf Moment” announcing the progress achieved by the entire Arab Gulf region, with a special focus on the United Arab Emirates. In both cases, there was a comparison with other Arab countries that preceded the field of modernity, such as Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, which were full of representation of Arabs and Arabism during previous decades. And the moment here defines her with that state of enlightenment that accompanies the cinematic stories and novels, at which time the complex of the artistic work is loosened. In history, the “Enlightenment” was an expression of European salvation from the coma of underdevelopment and the tyranny of the Church, and reliance on reason, science and logic. And lighting if it's time to change it. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has always had a special place in the Arab and Islamic worlds. Because it - and there is no other - has the protection and service of the Two Holy Mosques in Makkah Al-Mukarramah and Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, with their love and sacred status among Islamic nations and peoples. Certainly, oil added to this grant a great deal of influence in light of the developments that took place globally beginning in the seventies of the last century.

The “Saudi Moment” expresses a big leap after the above. Because it was deficient in the strong conservatism that characterized the kingdom, which characterized its political and social performance, and in its totality and by virtue of the religious leadership produced generations of Arab and Muslim followers in this direction. What happened during the previous ten years, and perhaps since King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, may God have mercy on him, took over the leadership of the country is that education in the Kingdom took another progressive path. It was from him to send a lot of missions and in large numbers for knowledge in developed countries. This was similar to what happened in Egypt at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The qualitative shift, and the great moment of enlightenment, took place in 2015 when King Salman bin Abdulaziz assumed power, and with him Prince Muhammad bin Salman assumed the mandate of the Covenant. Within 8 years, Saudi Arabia has entered another historical phase, and with it, the Arab region has taken to new horizons of progress.

The “Saudi Moment” portal was modernity, which by definition means a qualitative shift in 4 criteria: the first is identity, so that it is deeper, more spacious and comprehensive; the second is to penetrate the territory of the state; Where there is nothing in it that is far from reaching and dealing with it; The third is to mobilize the resources available in the country, and raise its productivity and participation in the global market. The fourth is the participation of the largest number of people in dealing with the processes of change taking place in society and the state. All of the above dimensions of modernity are known in human history as the “reform” process, which is similar to what happened in Europe, the period that followed the Middle Ages. Perhaps it was no coincidence that the Crown Prince mentioned in more than one press interview that the Saudis and their peers among the Arab "reformers" will form the new Europe in the world.

The national state was the broad title of the modern Saudi identity, and thus it is deep in the depth of the entire history before and after Islam, which did not come to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to find a civilized vacuum. Historical discoveries confirmed this with the emergence of kingdoms and monuments testifying to the human and civilized existence. Penetrating the territory of the state and, within a short period, paving the way for roads and opening airports and ports, and express trains ran to link the east of the state with its west, and its north with its south, perhaps during the shortest period known to history.

On an area of two million square kilometers, and the long coastlines on the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Arabian Gulf, “diversifying sources of income” is no longer a seasonal Gulf slogan, but rather a reality in which Saudi Arabia topped the Arab countries in the fields of industry and tourism and even found agriculture in a desert country. The Saudi participation began with the highly educated Saudi youth, whether they were men or women, Sunnis or Shiites, and this took place in light of a revolutionary renewal in religious thought that gives great appreciation for the energies of reason, choice, ambition, readiness to build, and the participation of his brother in man. A common human experience. The “Saudi moment” did not only concern Saudi Arabia, but the Arab region and the world as well.