Saudi-Arabien will voraussichtlich das Alkoholverbot lockern, um das Tourismuspotenzial freizusetzen

SS:
Describes a series of changes/events that point to ongoing secularization related (in part) to the KSA’s diversification away from oil.

These seem likely to create tensions. For example, high level of international tourism are not compatible with a strict interpretation of Islam, and Islamic extremists have targeted tourists in the past (eg in Egypt and Tunisa, OTTOMH). KSA’s will need to remain a ‘security state’ to protect this new industry.

KSA recently underwent a (Beijing-sponsored) rapprochement with Iran. Can this survive secularisation, without contradictions between Iran’s foreign policy and domestic crackdown embarrassing the mullahs into a change of stance?

Perhaps most fundamental of all, with the role of Islam as a source of legitimacy weakening, and petro-revenues, the KSA’s current source of largesse, declining, can public loyalty to a KSA regime that seems set to remain extremely repressive be maintained? (And if it is lost, how long can it continue to be imposed via said repression?)