Arab Prince aims to change Islamic Islam: I will fashion Muslims

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has pledged to turn his country into a moderate “Islam” and sought global support to transform the ultra-conservative kingdom into an open society that empowers citizens and seduces investors, reports the “The Guardian”, broadcasts Periscopi.

In an interview for “The Guardian”, the powerful heir to the Saudi throne said the ultra-conservative state was “normal” for the last 30 years, blaming solid doctrines that have governed society in response to the Iranian revolution, which successive leaders “They have no idea how to deal with it”.

The Saudi prince commented on some of the plans his country would have made more modern at an investment conference in which he announced the launch of an independent economic zone target with a figure in which Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt would be part of this area.

Prince Mohammed said: “We are a country of G20. We're in the middle of three continents. The change of Saudi Arabia in terms of modernising the best tools that help the region and the change of the world so that's what we're trying to do here and we hope to get support from all of”.

What happened in the last 30 years is not Saudi Arabia. What happened in the region in the last 30 years is not the Middle East. In 1979 after the Iranian revolution, people wanted to copy this model in different countries, but they had no idea how to deal with it, and this problem has spread worldwide. Now is the time to get rid of this evil mentality”, he added.

The Crown Prince's comments are the most pronounced he has made during a six-month reform programme that has presented cultural changes and unimaginable economic incentives over the past decades, during which the kingdom has been accused of promoting a brand of Islam that underlined extremism.

Comments are made after the incumbent monarch's heir moves to consolidate his authority, bypassing clergymen who he believes have not supported.

At the centre of the reforms has been the breaking of an alliance among hardline clergymen who have long defined the national character and Saudi House, which has run state affairs.

The extent and scope of reforms has been unprecedented in the modern history of the country, where concerns have a deeply conservative basis and that the kingdom lacks the ability to pursue its economic goals.

The new economic zone will be located at 470km of the Red Sea coast, in a tourist area already reserved as a liberal centre similar to Dubai, where male and female swimmers are free to associate.

It has been discovered as the essence of efforts to distance the kingdom from dependence on oil and a diverse open economy. The obstacles remain: a poor, embedded work ethic, a broken regulatory environment and a general reluctance to change.

“Economic transformation is important, but equally necessary is social transformation”, one of the country's leading businessmen said. “You cannot reach one without the other. The speed of social transformation is the key. It must be manageable. ”

Alcohol, cinema, and theaters are still banned in the Saudi kingdom, and association between unbounded men and women remains difficult.

Economically, Saudi Arabia will need huge resources if it succeeds in putting its economy on a new basis, and its leadership believes it will fail to generate strategic investments unless it takes broad steps for social reform.

Prince Mohammed had repeatedly insisted that without creating a new social contract between citizenship and state, economic rehabilitation would fail.

This is about giving a social life to children”, he said.

“The entertainment should be an option for them. They're upset and angry. A woman should be able to work alone. Without this we are all doomed. Everyone knows that except people in small cities. But they will learn”, he added.

In the next 10 years, at least five million Saudis are likely to enter the country's workforce, presenting a major problem for officials who currently have no jobs to offer them or tangible plans to generate employment.

The economic zone must be completed by 2025 years before the current reform programme decision and will be enabled by wind and solar energy, according to its founders.

The country's huge sovereign wealth fund aims to be a key supporter of the independent area. He currently has $230 billion under management. The sale of 5% of the world's largest company, Aramco, is expected to raise hundreds of billions more./Periscopi/

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