ABSTRACT
Saudi Arabia's crude oil reserves are about 22 percent of the world total, and its oil output is about 13 percent. The difference between those two figures means that Saudi Arabia's importance in the world oil industry will not soon diminish. The Saudi system of rule owes much to both faith and tradition. Originally, Prince Saud provided Sheikh Wahhab with a vehicle for proselytizing, while Wahhabism, with its focus on cleansing the Islamic faith of distortions, became a source of moral and religious legitimacy for Prince Saud and his successor's rule. Neo-Wahhabists oppose all secular authority and criticize official Wahhabism as deviating from Islamic fundamentals. Appeal to young, recently urbanized, unemployed men, but include members of the educated Saudi elite. The Sahwist al-Sahwa al-lslamiyya movement began in Saudi universities during the 1960s and 1970s, influenced by Muslim Brothers who found refuge in Saudi Arabia after persecution in Egypt and Syria.
