In recent times and under the leadership of the Saudi Crown Prince, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has embarked on a set of social policies including urbanization to develop the kingdom and change the society’s preserved values and norms to a liberal state like Western societies.
The problem lies in forcing people to accept norms that are strange to them. This has led to a clash with society; as such process cannot be achieved with force or imprisonment, but rather with discussion and dialogue, however the Crown Prince does not allow freedom of opinion of freedom and expression.
The second problem is MBS’s lack of appreciation for the status of the holy land for Muslims in all parts of the world, as it includes their sacred places, and this behaviour offends their feelings.
MBS could not differentiate between the pilgrimage visits and the touristic visits to the Kingdom, despite its contradiction to the traditions and morals of society, and disrespect to the feelings of Muslims, which in some way affected the economy of Saudi Arabia.
The great expansion in the establishment of tourist resorts without setting controls, as well as the facilitation of tourist visas in a broader way than Hajj and Umrah visas during the past periods, caused a state of unease among Saudi and Islamic public opinion, which was reflected in the state of discontent against the policies of the Saudi Crown Prince. These projects included NEOM, and “Amala” resorts, both of which are within the “Vision 2030” projects, where the Crown Prince will establish special airports for these areas and new projects.
The idea of societal reform of bin Salman and forcibly applying it to the society in Saudi Arabia has disturbing effects on the investment in these projects, as investors still see that those policies do not appeal to society and withdraw as a result, and this has negatively affected all the initiatives announced by the Saudi Crown Prince.
Opinion of investment and social specialists was similar regarding the Crown Prince’s policies which leave the country between two options, the first is continuing to break the customs and traditions forcibly, and this would cause a wide state of societal discontent with his policies and system. Over time, a societal rift and division, which will undoubtedly harm the economic transformation that bin Salman seeks in Saudi Arabia.
The second is for MBS to stop these policies and this will also affect the decisions of investors, and will result in losing hundreds of billions of dollars that the Crown Prince invested in his tourism projects.
