From: aziza alahmadi Sent: Wednesday, July 4, 2018 1:52 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Opinion I Can the Saudis Break Up With Wahhabism? - The New York Times http=://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/07/03/opinion/saudi-arabia-monarchy-wahhabism.ht=l <https://mobi=e.nytimes.com/2018/07/03/opinion/saudi-arabia-monarchy-wahhabism.html> Ca= the Saudis Break Up With Wahhabism? July 3, 2018 By Nabil Mouline Mr. Mouline is a=historian of the Saudi clergy and monarchy. Portraits of Crown Prince Moham=ed bin Salman, left, King Salman bin Abdulaziz and former Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Nayef on the wall of a restaurant in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.Jordan Pix/Getty=lmages The speed and magnitude of change in Saudi Arabia <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/=3/world/middleeast/saudi- arabia-photos-women-gender.html> has a=celerated considerably after the consecration of Crown Prince Mohammed bin S=lman. To legitimize his ascent, fulfill his absolutist ambitions and face v=rious internal and external challenges, Prince Mohammed has presented and p=sitioned himself as the champion of "modernization." Several of the crown prince's statement= and initiatives <https://mobile.nytimes.c=m/2018/07/03/opinion/h=tps://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/opinion/mohammed-bin- salman-saudi-arabia.h=ml> — calling for a moderate Islam, authorizing wo=en to drive, reopening cinemas — have been interpreted as his desir= to break the historic pact between the House of Saud and the Wahhabi relig=ous establishment. In the mid-18th century= the Saud embraced Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, a revivalist preacher who ad=ocated a narrow reading of the Quran and the Hadith and attacked any deviat=ons from or accretions to the original practice. People who deviated from t=e Wahhabi doctrine were excluded from Islam, and jihad was considered the o=ly way to bring them back to the right path. The compact with Wahhab and his disciples helped the Saud to legitimize a= expansionist policy and create a dur