Saudi Arabia: Revolution from the Throne

By Saudi Arabia's Islamic calendar, this year is 1386, and visitors to the-desert kingdom often feel that is about where Saudi Arabia stands on the Western calendar. Justice still decrees an eye for an eye. Marriages are arranged sight unseen. A few weeks ago the deputy rector of the Islamic University at Medina even came out in support of a 14th-century theory that the world is flat and mountains are only ballast to keep it from tipping over. But for all this, Saudi Arabia's old ideas and old ways are giving way to...