Contesting the Saudi State: Islamic Voices from a New Generation

Contesting the Saudi State: Islamic Voices from a New Generation. By Madawi alRasheed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 332 pp. $30.

Rasheed, professor of social anthropology at King's College London, notes that much of the scholarly literature on politico-religious discourse in Saudi Arabia merely establishes that it is strongly rooted in Wahhabism. Her purpose in Contesting the Saudi State is to move beyond that cursory understanding by analyzing the evolutionary dynamics ofthat discourse, its fragmentation, and the resulting state of political consent and contestation. This is done through a frank...