Wahhabism

That country’s Wahhabism had arisen as a puritan reform of Sunnism in the 18th century.

Following Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and a militant attack on the Grand Mosque at Mecca, Saudi Arabia’s rulers soon further embraced Wahhabism, an ultraconservative Islamic doctrine born in the kingdom.

Ruled for generations by the House of Saud under Wahhabism, a fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam, Saudi Arabia perennially scores near the bottom of most international human rights indices.

However, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has curbed the influence of Wahhabism on Saudi society and arts, also reining in the religious police and letting women drive cars.

The prince’s emphasis on culture amounts to an assault on Wahhabism, the puritanical brand of Islam whose adherents allied themselves with the royal family in 1744 and propelled its rise to power.