Saudi Arabia is a Kingdom (dictatorship) in the Middle East. Its
King (hereditary dictator) is King Abdullah. It also happens to
be one of the US's strategic partners. That's mainly because it
has lots of oil and lots of oil revenues, which it has used to
buy lots of the US. So they own large amounts of the US economy
and are the largest supplier of something that the US is
addicted to. Saudi Arabia's state religion is Islam and the
ruling Islamic sect is the warkike Wahhabi. Most Saudis are
Sunni with a Shia minority. Religious toleration only extends to
certain sects of Islam, and no other religion is tolerated as
such (ancient abandoned churches have been bulldozed despite
their archaeological value). Saudi Arabia's king Abdullah says
that he respects rights of other religions to worship in
private, but this right is not respected, although the Saudi
Arabian government has a "dhimmi" system, which gives protection
and privileges for non-Muslims but treats them as second-class
citizens. Recently Mr Abdullah