Many Saudis are seething at Muhammad bin Salman’s reforms

ON DECEMBER 30TH the authorities in Saudi Arabia stuck notices to the shrines in Mecca and Medina, Islam’s holiest cities, telling worshippers to stay two metres apart, lest they spread covid-19. But Muhammad bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler (pictured), seems less keen on imposing restrictions elsewhere. His men have been drawing crowds to concert halls and fairgrounds in other cities. A government-endorsed rave last month brought together 700,000 young Saudis to dance for four days. “This kingdom is preventing virtue and promoting vice,” says a teacher in Medina’s quiet city centre.

Public-opinion polls are rare in Saudi Arabia. So it is tough to gauge the backlash against Prince Muhammad’s efforts to open up and reform one of the world’s most closed and intolerant countries. But soundings from inside the kingdom indicate that there are at least three unhappy groups: Salafists, who espouse a fundamentalist version of Islam; princes from the ruling House of Saud; and ordinary Saudis who liked things better the way they were. Only repression and fear prevent them from trying to unseat Prince Muhammad and turn back the clock.