ABSTRACT
Arab society has known three major modes of living: desert, countryside, and town. The traditional image of the nomadic Bedouin for the last few millenia has been a tent, a herd, a horse, a sword, a primordial value system, and constant roaming in the desert. The male counterparts of the veiled college women are the young Muslim militants. This is an image mostly of college-educated, bearded, angry men. Unlike the typical Western counterpart, the Saudi entrepreneur does not take any risk and loses hardly any of his capital. A non-Saudi cannot, by law, initiate or fully own a business in Saudi Arabia. Thus a Syrian tailor or an Egyptian mechanic wishing to open a shop must find a Saudi sponsor as a partner. The Muslim militants are mostly like Ilham, the veiled medical student. They come from the middle and lower-middle classes, they are of rural or small-town backgrounds, and they are high achievers and quite intelligent.
