Most Saudis are ethnically [[Arab]]. Some are of mixed ethnic origin and are descended from Turks, Iranians, Indonesians, Indians, Africans, and others, most of whom immigrated as pilgrims and reside in the Hijaz region along the Red Sea coast. Many Arabs from nearby countries are employed in the kingdom. There also are significant numbers of Asian expatriates mostly from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines. There are less than 100,000 Westerners in Saudi Arabia.
{{Anchor|House of Saud}}
==Government==
Saudi oil reserves are the largest in the world, and Saudi Arabia is the world's leading oil producer and exporter. Oil accounts for more than 90% of the country's exports and nearly 75% of government revenues. Proven reserves are estimated to be 263 billion barrels, about one-quarter of world oil reserves.
More than 95% of all Saudi oil is produced on behalf of the Saudi Government by the parastatal giant [[Saudi ARAMCO]]. In June 1993, Saudi ARAMCO absorbed the state marketing and refining company (SAMAREC), becoming the world's largest fully integrated oil company. Most Saudi oil exports move by tanker from Gulf terminals at Ras Tanura and Ju'aymah. The remaining oil exports are transported via the east-west pipeline across the kingdom to the Red Sea port of Yanbu.
Due to a sharp rise in petroleum revenues in 1974 following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Saudi Arabia became one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. It enjoyed a substantial surplus in its overall trade with other countries; imports increased rapidly; and ample government revenues were available for development, defense, and aid to other Arab and Islamic countries.
In January 2015 King Abdullah died at the age of 90. His half-brother Prince Salman was appointed as successor.<ref>https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/powerful-saudi-arabia-king-abdullah-dies-age-90</ref>
===Attack on the Grand Mosque, 1979===
The Grand Mosque in Mecca (home of the [[Kaaba]]) was briefly taken over for a period of weeks by an obscure group led by a poorly educated ''Bedouin'' named Juhayman<ref>Review of ''[http://www.fsmitha.com/review/trofimov2.html The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising in Islam's Holiest Shrine and the Birth of al Qaeda]'', Yaroslav Trofimov, Doubleday, 2007.</ref> whose theology was an early manifestation of modern violent [[Salafi]]sm. These believers did not embrace many aspects of modern society. They opposed identity cards and passports because these denote loyalty to an entity other than [[Allah]]. They were against [[Idolatry|images of living beings]], not only on television and in photography but also on coins. The only previous violent encounter was when a group of young activists were caught smashing shop display windows showing female mannequins in the center of Medina in 1965. And they had peculiar views on ritual practices setting them apart from other religious communities and the religious establishment.
The incident revealed the Saudi state was thoroughly unprepared to deal with a challenge to its legitimacy from conservative religious believers.<ref>Thomas Hegghammer and Stephane Lacroix. [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=862184 Rejectionist Islamism in Saudi Arabia: The Story of Juhayman al-Utaybi Revisited.] International Journal of Middle East Studies, February 2007, pp 103-122, Cambridge University Press.</ref> After three days of fruitless negotiations, the Saudi's turned to external, non-Islamic "crusader" forces to dislodge the jihadis. Non-Muslims are not allowed within the city of Mecca, and bloodshed on the grounds of the temple is considered virtually an unpardonable sin; yet the Saudi state and its reigning religious establishment deputized, through a fatwa, the French Special Operations Forces to retake the mosque.<ref>Many details of the Mosque takeover remain officially classified Saudi state secrets. [http://cat-int.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/The-Makkah-Siege-In-defense-of-Juhayman-Sayyid-2004.pdf The Makkan Siege: In Defense of Juhayman], a collection of internet reports on the siege and excerpts of Juhayman's letters. Juhayman is considered to have provided more inspiration to the the modern jihadist movement than Osama bin Laden who left virtually no religious writings behind.</ref><ref>Peterson, J.E. “[http://www.jepeterson.net/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/APBN-003_Saudi_Arabia_Internal_Security_Incidents_Since_1979.pdf Saudi Arabia: Internal Security Incidents Since 1979.]” Arabian Peninsula Background Note, No. APBN-003. Published on www.JEPeterson.net, January 2004; updated 31 December 2007.</ref>
Official reports say that 255 fanatics, troops and pilgrims were killed, while 560 were injured. The rebels who survived were imprisoned or beheaded, with reports claiming 63 beheadings.
The respected imam Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, who abhorred violence, condemned Juhayman's attack; however one of his students, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, fell under the influence of Juhayman's thought. In coming years Maqdisi further developed the idea that the ruling Saudi clan were apostate Muslim infidels along with a rejection of the very idea of a [[nation state]].<ref>Maqdisi's ''Community of Abraham'' is a further expansion of Juhayman's ''Clarification Concerning the Community of the One God Designated as Guide of the People''; [https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0674049640 Awakening Islam], Stephane Lacroix & George Holoch, Harvard University Press, Aug 15, 2011, Page 101.</ref>
The year 1979 is also cited as the point in time when a member of the wealthy bin Laden clan (who made their fortune building stuff) began to develop his political ideology and one central piece of said ideology is the "humiliation" of French forces having to bail out the "Muslim" Saudi Arabia. [[Osama bin Laden]] later went to Afghanistan to throw out [[Soviet Union|another bunch]] of "infidels" from "Muslim land" and the Taliban regime his ilk helped establish gave him shelter and a safe haven, even though he was a wanted terrorist.
===1987 Mecca massacre===
In 1987 more than four hundred persons, mostly Iranian Shi'ite pilgrims and about 85 Saudis and security personal, were killed during a demonstration against the "Enemies of Islam" (basically, the United States and Israel) in front of the Grand Mosque.<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20091029204548/http://www.geocities.com/martinkramerorg/Hajj.htm#ref32 </ref> Iranian [[hajj]] pilgrims traditionally make up the largest single contingent from any single country.<ref>US Saudi Arabia Diplomatic and Political Cooperation Handbook, USA International Business Publications, 2007, [http://books.google.com/books?id=ob37QAVkGrgC&q=lunar%2BHijaz#v=snippet&q=lunar%2BHijaz&f=false p. 178.]</ref> Details about the incident and causes remain murky, with the official Saudi version contradicted by Iran's own investigation. <ref>The Muslim World League convened a conference in Mecca in October 1987 condemning Iran for the violence: Iran’s government--a government “accustomed to terrorism and a thirst for Muslim blood”--“solely bears the responsibility for the outrage in God’s holy mosque.” The conference endorsed the measures taken by the Saudi authorities “to quell the sedition and to contain the fires of wickedness.” Kramer, ''Khomeini’s Messengers''.</ref><ref>http://www.shiachat.com/forum/topic/234966843-saudi-propaganda-of-iranian-attack-on-kaabah-1987/ </ref>
Shock over violence just outside the Grand Mosque again sparked a debate across the Muslim world about the Saudis dual role as American ally and Custodian of the Two Holy Custodian of the Islamic Holy Places.<ref>http://introducingislam.org/info/carnage/carnage.php </ref> [[Ayatollah Khomeini]] condemned the "vile and ungodly Wahhabis" as "lackeys of the United States” and called for the overthrow of the House of Saud.<ref><small>"Iran convened an “International Congress on Safeguarding the Sanctity and Security of the Great Mosque,” under the auspices of the ministry of Islamic guidance and the foreign ministry. Rafsanjani, in addressing the three hundred participants from 36 countries, called for the “liberation” of Mecca and the establishment of an “Islamic International” which would govern Mecca as a free city."</small> Kramer, ''Khomeini’s Messengers''.</ref> The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) formed a group known as Hezbollah al-Hejaz, more commonly known as Saudi Hezbollah, for this purpose.<ref>https://www.aei.org/publication/saudi-arabias-forgotten-shiite-spring/ </ref>
It was in this atmosphere of anti-Saudi and anti-U.S. sentiment throughout the Muslim world that [[Saddam Hussein]] made his calculated gamble to challenge Saudi Arabia and the United States over Kuwait in 1990.<ref>
Political Islam, Edited by Fredric Volpi, Routledge, [https://wiki.zirve.edu.tr/sandbox/groups/economicsandadministrativesciences/wiki/b7907/attachments/b87f0/week6required1.pdf?sessionID=be1325d37a7c5f7b99f39de6da779933c272d74d p. 5-6 pdf], ''et seqq''.</ref>
==Notable Saudi Arabians==
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{{Deep State}}
[[Category:Saudi Arabia]]
[[Category:Muslim-Majority Countries]]
[[Category:Terrorism]]
[[Category:Threats]]