Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, just shocked the world with his latest announcement. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will return to what it was before — a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions, and to the world,” the prince said.
The comment was made during the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh on Tuesday. The prince’s direct criticism of Saudi Arabia’s conservative religious establishment is in itself a major shift of the Saudi official standpoint.
“We will not waste 30 years of our lives dealing with extremist ideas, we will destroy them today. It was not like this in the past. We will end extremism very soon,” he added.
The 32-year-old is the driving force behind Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia’s long-term economic and social policy that is designed to wean itself off the country’s dependence on oil. He is also quite popular for his reforms to the country’s ineffective state bureaucracy.
Prince Mohammad also announced the creation of Neom, a new independent economic zone to be built on the border with Jordan and Egypt, it has been reported to be worth $500bn. The conference, which runs until Thursday, aims to show that Riyadh is opening itself up to the modern world, following a global plunge in oil prices.
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