So how are things in Saudi Arabia?

The Chicago Tribune has two stories on developments within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia today — kind of a good news/bad news deal. The bad news is that those provincial elections didn’t turn out like Saudi reformers had hoped. Evan Osnos explains:

In a blow to reformers in Saudi Arabia, candidates backed by Islamic clerics appear to have won a key region in the country’s first nationwide election. Preliminary tallies Friday for the capital city of Riyadh showed that at least five of the seven winning candidates in Thursday’s municipal elections have close ties to Saudi Arabia’s clerical establishment. Though the results apply only to a municipal race for the capital, they had been widely anticipated here and in Washington as a rare referendum on reform efforts in one of the world’s most traditional absolute monarchies. The Islamists’ victory in the political heart of the country could be a setback for reform-minded Crown Prince Abdullah, the de facto Saudi ruler, who had gambled that elections could loosen hard-line clerics’ grip on the government. Abdullah has clashed with more conservative royals who do not support his reforms and who had watered down his balloting plan by barring women from the election and setting aside half the seats to be appointed by the ruling family…. Moderate candidates say they are worried that a victory by the religious establishment might undermine Saudi Arabia’s halting reform efforts, including expanding women’s rights, strengthening the rule of law and revamping the educational system. “We have enough religious power in our country, and they will increase it even more. The result is not promising,” said al-Homeidi, a professor of public administration at King Saud University. “I am concerned about the future. Once they get into the level of municipality, then I’m sure they will get more power and will get into the higher levels [of government].”

Read the whole thing — it’s not clear how much of a setback this is, given that it was only one region, and a conservative one at that (though I’d love a Saudi expert to identify a liberal region in the country). Of course, the decision to exclude women from the vote probably didn’t help the moderates much. One other nitpick at this report is the history it provides of Islamist movements:

The success of Islamist political parties has roots that date to political events a generation ago. Political analysts point to the devastating Arab loss to Israel in the 1967 war and the death of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had advocated a secular pan-Arabism. In the ashes of that secular vision stirred a revival of religion as the possible salvation of the Arab world, and that spirit gathered strength after the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. Islamist parties, which call for a greater role for Islam in the affairs of state, tend to have more unified messages and stronger organizations, while moderate candidates often spread votes across an array of agendas.

I’ll be happy to be corrected on this, but if memory serves that’s not quite accuate. It’s true that the Six Day War was a triggering event for the rise of Islamist parties — but the motivation was different. Secular Arab regimes were afraid of the growing political power of leftist/communist parties in their countries. As a result, they permitted the rise of Islamist parties to offer a counterweight. On the good news side of the ledger, Christine Spolar reports that the Saudi regime is reaching out on the war on terror:

Saudi officials this week reached across borders and bureaucracies to underscore domestic efforts in pursuing terrorist networks and to refocus the nation’s role in global discussions on combating terrorism. For the first time since Al Qaeda surfaced, the Saudis publicly sought to trade and share technical information about counterterrorism operations with professional delegations from more than 50 nations. The international anti-terrorism conference, a first for the Arab Peninsula, was deemed remarkable by several participants if only for the fact that the Saudis, once defensive about extremist elements within their borders, openly acknowledged that they needed counsel for their own “war on terror.” The four-day conference drew diplomats and intelligence professionals from the United States, France, Germany, Belgium, Pakistan, Turkey and other countries. It produced a single resolution: that the creation of a global counterterrorism center should be explored. But participants in closed workshops that focused on the origins, financial underpinnings and criminal elements of terrorism said there was additional value in dialogue and building personal contacts. “Two years ago, the Saudis wouldn’t even admit the problem was in their back yard,” said a European intelligence official who requested anonymity. “There is a shift in approach. They are being more open in their exchanges.”

The internal steps to combat radicals is particularly interesting:

The Saudi remarks appear to be confirmed in a recent assessment by the Center for Strategic & International Studies, an independent research group in Washington. During the first half of 2004, the kingdom fired 44 Friday preachers, 160 imams and 149 prayer callers for incompetence, according to a report released in January. Nearly 1,400 religious officials were suspended and ordered to undergo retraining, the report said. The Saudis also have begun grass-roots campaigns aimed at promoting stability. Web sites have been created to seek discourse and chats with a younger generation. Cell phone users in Riyadh now are peppered with text messages that reject terrorism. The week of the conference, even the family of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden sought a public moral high ground. “We strongly condemn all kinds of terror,” exclaimed a large newspaper ad placed by the construction company owned by the bin Laden family. The family, close to the royal family, has previously condemned Al Qaeda’s activities and said it has no ties to Osama bin Laden, who was stripped of Saudi citizenship more than a decade ago.

Here’s a link to the one-page summary of that CSIS report. Click here for a copy of the draft reports by Anthony H. Cordesman and Nawaf Obaid.