Introduction

The introduction highlights the main issues that have arisen when exploring religion in Saudi Arabia, and the different approach this volume takes. It also explores the development of debates on religion in Saudi Arabia, demonstrating that the recent critiques of religion have some precedent, and showing how the internet and the rise of social media accelerated the development of those debates in both form and content. Then it discusses a personal encounter with heresy and nonbelief in Saudi Arabia which prompted interest in this matter and the writing of this book. It briefly points to the volume’s methodological justifications for using social media as a key source of social understanding. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this introduction discusses the key ethical considerations this volume has had to undertake as it analyzes public and private statements in matters of a highly sensitive nature.

Evolution of Saudi Religion

The final and concluding chapter summarizes the main points raised in the previous chapters confirming the presence of religious criticisms and disengagements while also emphasizing the difficulties in gaining an accurate knowledge of the extent those two phenomena are widespread in Saudi society. The chapter also highlights the layman’s criticism of religion and contrasts it with that of the intellectual, philosopher or theologian and states the need to pay more attention to the former as it is more representative of most religious criticisms, more indicative of the impact of modern sensibilities on the relationship between Muslims in general and their religiosity, and is motivated by different reasons least of which are ideas. The chapter states the main learnings gained about the phenomenon of criticizing religion in Saudi Arabia and its public emergence in virtual spaces, while also stressing the challenges of the migration of public virtual criticism into public dialogue in physical spaces. Moreover, it points to some of the learnings gained about disengagement from religion in terms of causes and outcomes. Finally, it points to some of the questions left unanswered that need further research.

Criticizing Religion on Twitter

This chapter demonstrates the types of critical discussion on religion, showing that Saudis on Twitter have been critical of Islam in all its aspects, and that while critiques have stayed within the boundaries of orthodoxy Islam—albeit stretching that boundary—many others have crossed it into outright heresy. The chapter focuses on types of criticism that exhibit a tension between sensibilities shaped by modernity and traditional understandings of religion, demonstrating the effect of modernity on religion in Saudi Arabia. The chapter also briefly discusses the method of using Twitter hashtags as a source that exhibits various forms of discussions happening in Saudi Arabia, without claim about the extent of representation of the Saudi populace. The chapter also shows that criticism of religion has not been without antecedents, and that this public criticism can be seen as a new wave facilitated by the rise and ubiquity of social media, rather than as a novel phenomenon. In this chapter, most of the tweets here have been anonymized to protect the privacy of the tweeters but the hashtags from which those tweets were selected are available for further research.

Backlash

This chapter explores the response of Saudi religious orthodoxy to the challenge of religious criticism and the ways in which it has sought to mobilize society against such a phenomenon and called on the state to repress various actors. It demonstrates through different historical cases in different places, how religious orthodoxy in general has used takfir as both a means to threaten, ostracize even eliminate those who threaten its authority and also as a means to reassert its authority vis-à-vis the state. It presents orthodoxy and heresy as political phenomena shaped by authority rather than by theological ideas and analyzes the methods of control employed by state and informal religious institutions and their underlying sociopolitical motivations. The chapter also discusses the ways social media has empowered religious orthodoxy, the reasons they are able to mobilize social support, and the state’s response to that power. Finally, it points to some of the consequences of that response on stifling public discussions on religion.

Ambivalent Religiosity

This chapter examines the Saudi religious landscape, interrogating the widespread assumption that Saudi society and state are religious. It points to the main religious institutions of the country showing that while the authority they wield on the political and social landscape is much less than is widely thought to be. The chapter validates that Islam is important as a spiritual value, a source of legitimacy and an identity for both the Saudi state and Saudi society, but it also highlights the internal contradictions that have formed into an ambivalence of religiosity in Saudi society where sin is both rejected and accepted, and religion is both revered but also in some form neglected. The chapter demonstrates that those contradictions have created spaces for religious criticism, and that understanding the phenomenon of ambivalence of religiosity allows observers of Saudi Arabia to normalize religious criticism, instead of the widespread assumption that it is an anomaly.

Criticizing Religion

This chapter defines the scope of this volume. It explores the impact of modernity on religion in general, and some key aspects of the Muslim response to modernity. The chapter highlights the difference between two ways of understanding the impact of modernity on Muslim religiosity: the first is the disengagement from religion in ways similar to modernity’s impact on religion in other societies; the second is the evolution of religion into a social and political identity, an evolution that has had serious consequences most notably the rise of the politics of cultural authenticity and the growth of political Islam. The book claims that the second way has had a monopoly on our understanding of Muslims and instead chooses to focus on the first way. The chapter also explores the ways Islam in Saudi has been understood, and how that has limited our understanding of society and religion in that country. Most importantly the chapter discusses some of the key social theories that highlight the reasons individuals disengage from religion and revert to either indifference towards religion, or heresy or even nonbelief.

Religious Disengagements

This chapter explores in detail some of the stories of Saudis who underwent changes in their belief system, specifically changes away from the basic fundamental precepts of Islam. This chapter complements that discussion on public criticism of religion on Twitter by understanding the stories behind the ideas. It probes into the personal lives of individuals of various religious, educational, and socioeconomic backgrounds seeking a deeper understanding of the reasons behind their religious transformations. The chapter highlights the key issues pertaining to those stories, most notably the biases and misinterpretations that are inextricable and unavoidable, and also the validity of using life stories to understand a wider social phenomenon. Finally, the chapter discusses the impact of modernity on those religious transformations, suggesting that modern sensibilities have a more fundamental impact on disengaging from religion than do philosophical or scientific ideas.