‘Moderate Islam’ for Saudis

SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia’s ambitious young crown prince said he wanted to lead his country back to ‘‘moderate Islam’’, as he announced plans for a vast US$380 million economic development zone.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman told investors in Riyadh that his economic modernisation plans would go hand-in-hand with political reforms to guide the conservative kingdom away from severe Wahhabi Islam.

‘‘We are returning to what we were before – a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world,’’ the

32-year-old prince said. ‘‘Seventy per cent of the Saudi population is under 30, and honestly we will not spend the next

30 years of our lives dealing with destructive ideas.

‘‘We will destroy them today and at once. We will end extremism very soon.’’

The prince said he wanted to move his country past 1979, the year in which Wahhabi clerics asserted themselves over Saudi politics following the assassination of King Faisal in 1975.

While the years before had seen a gradual expansion of education for women, as well as growing use of technology, much of that progress came to a halt after the killing of the king, and in the decades since, Saudi’s social policies have been largely frozen in time.

The prince announced plans for NEOM, an economic zone stretching across Saudi’s borders into neighbouring Egypt and Jordan, covering 26,500 square kilometres.

He wants to modernise the kingdom and wean it off its dependence on oil. His vision for Saudi’s future could see robots outnumbering humans, drones carrying passengers and an omnipresent high-speed internet known as ‘‘digital air’’. –