Urban Unrest and Non-Religious Radicalization in Saudi Arabia

Pascal Menoret (1)

1 Brandeis University

The expressions of dissent in contemporary Saudi Arabia, whether through violent action or ideological and theological constructions, are well documented today. The very contexts within which violence appears and develops are less well known. If it is essential to read and analyse the Islamic discourses and to observe and interpret the history of Islamic activism in Saudi Arabia, such an elitist focus may overlook more discrete events that might explain the way ordinary people refer to state violence. By widening the scope of political analysis to the ethnographic study of urban delinquency in Riyadh, I hope to more efficiently grasp the nature of the Saudi authoritarian public space.

Mots clés: Urban violence; radicalization; youth; Saudi Arabia

Domaines: Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie

Pascal Menoret. Urban Unrest and Non-Religious Radicalization in Saudi Arabia. Madawi Al-Rasheed and Marat Shterin. Dying for Faith: Religiously Motivated Violence in the Contemporary World, I.B. Tauris, pp.123-137, 2009. ⟨halshs-00420942⟩