When it comes to Saudi Arabia politics there are many of them, but for now let’s start with the most famous among them, the Saudi Arabian Political Parties. There are currently eight political parties represented in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and their main agenda is a little different from each other. As you read about their agendas, let’s see the reasons why the ruling party has made so many changes and benefits that it has made to the elections that have been held.
The three major Saudi Arabian Political Parties are; the moderates, which control the most part of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the ultraconservative Islamic Party, which are somewhat of an extreme conservative interpretation of the religion of Islam, and the religious parties. Each of these parties has its own agenda.
The Moderate Party: This political party was created in the early 80’s, they want to hold the status quo, but on the side, they also want to make the King to remain as the supreme leader of the country, they do not want to throw the country into turmoil by making changes to the current system. They believe that the King should continue as the head of the government, as they believe he has the best interests of the country at heart. But of course this does not mean that they want to turn the country into an Islamic state as it was created by the Quran.
The most modern part of the moderate political party is where the actual conflict of differences comes from. Many of the Saudi Arabian Political Parties believe that they are allowed to impose their version of religion on the society that they have ruled over for many years, but they also believe that they should be allowed to develop their social infrastructure without interference by the modern civilized world.
The most conservative part of the moderate political party are the religious parties which want to place their belief system above the basic rights of the Saudi Arabian society. In this sense they believe that they are allowed to ban all forms of entertainment and cultural values which contradict their belief system. They feel that they are the only ones that can make the decision on what is acceptable in Saudi Arabia, they believe that they are the best people to rule the country.
The ultraconservative Islamic Party: Also known as Al-Watan (the “thousand movements”), the Islamic Party was formed in 1995, which was founded by the hard-line cleric and also known as Sheikh Al-Jasser. He is the one who introduced the idea of a religious interpretation of the Saudi Arabia political parties.
He came up with a very strong and hard-line version of Islam, which has a lot of mixed interpretations and it often leads to some controversies in Saudi Arabia, especially when he himself was sentenced to a death sentence. He wanted to create a strict rule which would be implemented on the people in the Kingdom, he believed that people were free to choose their religion, but if they do not follow his religious rules then they will be given punishment by the government, which was a big problem.
The religious parties are the most visible part of the Saudi Arabian politics, as their followers have a great influence on the decision makers in the government. They like to adhere to their religion in a way that is very close to the way it was presented by the Saudi Arabian government, and most of them are also hard-core Muslim fundamentalists.
These fundamentalist groups include the Saudis who came up with a more moderate version of Islam, and there are also the Muslims who grew up in a conservative environment and they still adhere to their religion in a moderate manner. Theirs is a relationship that is not yet proven and there will probably be more to be discussed in future posts.
The JASS is also in charge of the government, the political parties and they also take a stand on economic policies, as they are the ones who tell the people how much it costs them in order to participate in certain sports and participate in certain events. They are also in charge of bringing many things in which are necessary for the survival of the Saudi Arabian society. And just to mention some of them; these include; security, education, health care, management of energy and many other aspects of the country.
So, we can see that JASS is not really the bad one, they are actually quite popular among the population, in general, but when we look at the reformists, they are the ones who initiated many major changes in the way the kingdom works, they put their views on the forefront, and they are in control of all the major changes that have been made in the Saudi Arabian society since the early 20th century. They are also the ones who have not been able to get along in peace with JASS.
