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In March of 1975 when King Faisal meets with Kuwait’s petroleum minister, one of the king’s nephews, Faisal ibn Musaid, sneaks into the room. His brother had been killed by police at the 1965 protest against the introduction of television. Ibn Musaid shoots and kills the king. The assassination comes as a violent shock, especially because the killer is a member of the royal family. As his father had decreed, King Faisal is succeeded by his half-brother Prince Khalid, who becomes the fourth king of Saudi Arabia.  Khalid continues the modernization of the kingdom as oil profits soar.  In 1972, Saudi Arabia now has 20% control over Aramco, lessening U.S. control of their production.  Subsequently, In June 1972, the Ba’athist government in Iraq nationalized the Iraq Petroleum Company and its operations were taken over by the Iraq National Oil Company.  Iran, who had been in a stranglehold of foreign interests for over 25 years when the ruling class of the Shah of Iran was overtaken by the religious clerics of the ayatollahs in 1979 mobilizing full control over their oil. There was a shift regionally from colonial rule to indigenous rule.  The assertion of regional leaders empowered to control their future destiny with their own Pan Arabic vision could redefine the region.  The legacy of the Iranian Mossedegh was in the crossfire of that intent though his humility and uncompromised resolve exceeded present day leaders. 

With the invasion of Afghanistan into the Soviet Union also in 1979, the Wahhabis, the strict Muslim sect, find a rallying cause. The Soviet Union, whom they consider a godless intruder, invades the Muslim nation of Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia and the U.S. make a secret deal to contribute equal amounts to finance the Afghan war against the Soviets. Thousands of young Saudis are sent to fight alongside the mujahideen in Afghanistan. For the next decade, some 45,000 young Saudi soldiers trek to Afghanistan where they acquire military skills and come to believe that dedicated Islamic fighters can defeat a superpower. One of their leaders is Osama bin Laden.  In the same year which is 1979, several hundred Saudi fundamentalists take over al-Haram, the Great Mosque at Mecca and the holiest site in Islam. The leader of the insurgents is Juhayman al-Utaybi, a direct descendant of the Ikhwan, the Wahhabi warriors who helped the Al Saud family take power in the early 1920s. The radicals call for a return to pure Islam, and a reversal of modernization. Juhayman also accuses the royal family of corruption and says they have lost their legitimacy because of their dealings with the West.  The royal family again turns to the ulama, the religious court.  The clerics issue a fatwa that allows the government to use all necessary force to retake the Great Mosque. The standoff lasts for several weeks before the Saudi military can remove the insurgents. More than 200 troops and dissidents are killed in the attacks and, to set an example, over sixty of the zealots are publicly beheaded in their hometowns. With the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, Shiites in Saudi Arabia felt courageous enough to try and secure equal treatment as Sunnis had.  Since Al-Hasa and Qatif which were conquered and annexed into the Emirate of Riyadh in 1913 by Ibn Saud, Shiites in the region had experienced state oppression.  Shiites in Saudi Arabia were polarized to Khomeini in 1979 and his position toward the Saudi royal family on the grounds that Islam and hereditary kingship are not compatible with their Shia doctrine.  They decided to celebrate the Day of Ashura, a Shia holiday that was banned. They were also motivated by the fact that Sunnis got paid more wages in the oil field than Shias.   With the open celebration of the Day of Ashura, national guardsmen beat down the crowd through the use of clubs and electric prods, which angered the crowd and was met by protesters throwing stones and wielding bars and wooden canes as weapons. The National Guardsmen then opened fire on the crowd, wounding, amongst others, the 19 year old Hussein Mansur al Qalaf.  The leader was taken to a hospital and refused treatment.  By the time he got to the next hospital, he died.  The Royal family would only release the body if the family stated he was stoned during the demonstration.  The family complied.

The change of geo-politics since 1980, is that Saudi Arabia had decided to strengthen alliances with the United States due to shifting dynamics in the region.  Iran, which is now Shia dominated and verbally attacked the Saudi monarchy, became an enemy.  Saudi Arabia and the U.S. financed the majority of arms and money to the Iraqis during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.  The U.S.. and the Saudis provided support to Osama bin Laden’s fighting faction when he was a part of the mujahideen forces in Pakistan fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.  The Saudis were duped by the United States when King Fahd was told in 1990 by General Schwarzkopf that Iraq planned to invade the Sauds within days after invading Kuwait.  The Saudis offered to use their military base so that the U.S. led coalition could defeat Iraq.  Saddam Hussein intended to develop a Pan-Arabic confederation of nations that could emancipate from full Western rule.  However, he did not have the charisma of Egypt’s former Nasser and was ultimately defeated.  

With the change of power in January, 2015 and the death of King Abdullah, King Salman has now taken over the reign.  After the crown prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, he has placed Mohammed bin Nayef, the 55 years old grandson as the deputy crown prince.  He is the first in succession to not be one of King Ibn Saud’s sons.  He was the interior minister during the Qatif uprising of 1979.  He has formed a center to rehabilitate former jihadists.  He survived a terrorist assassination attempt in 2009.  He is popular among youth.  The Saudi kingdom has an uphill battle with recent publicity of Rahif Badawi who was jailed in 2012 for liberal minded blogging.  He was charged with apostacy and given a ten years sentence and 1000 lashes.  The lashes have been stopped since King Salman came to power.  King Salman has said “The direction is to go for more reform, not less.  The environment has changed, you have social media and nobody can control any society now.  I think that is understood by the leadership.”  “The kingdom and the royal family will not be able to move forward unless Nayef has the religious establishment at his side. It will be very, very difficult because the religious leaders are generally older and their base of support is so strong,” says Rachel Bronson of Chicago Council on Global Affairs.  The recent coup in Yemen, during which Shia rebels forced the country’s Sunni president to step down, is viewed by most within Saudi Arabia as a direct threat to Sunni stability in the region.  With encroaching Islamic fundamentalists such as Yemenise insurgents and ISIS who denounced the Saudi monarchy recently and geographically flank their kingdom, the Royal family must retain strong public support within their kingdom to survive.