The short film within this video entitled 'The Mukaab, a gateway to another world' was created by the "Public Investment Fund" and can be viewed on YouTube here:    • The Mukaab: A Gateway to Another World  

Another website with more videos of the Mukaab can be viewed at 'NewMurabba.com' here: https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/newmu...

This video is a conversation between Robert Spencer and Dr Smith concerning the problems the government of Saudi Arabia is facing with their push to Westernize their country and make it relevant for the 21st century.

In the previous video we referred to the footballer Neymar, who arrived in Riyadh on August 18 wearing a visibly large diamond studded cross around his neck. We noted the subsequent adverse critical reaction Saudi Arabia has received from the rest of the Muslim world, which has brought to light a very real problem for the Saudi Arabian government...namely, how to juggle the need for Saudi Arabia to plan for the future of their country, once the oil is no longer needed by the West, while still remaining true to their position in the Muslim world as the center of Islam and the protector of its two holiest places (Mecca and Medina)?

The Saudi Arabian government is patently aware that the West is weaning themselves off of oil and moving everything to renewable fuels, particularly electricity, wind and solar sources, which will mean less and less demand for their oil.

The total Saudi budget is 75% dependent on oil at the moment. With so many countries moving away from oil, they will have to diversify in order to survive, and do so quickly.

That is why Muhammad bin Salman (MBS) the de-facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, is trying desperately to move the economy to other alternative sources for revenue.

Consequently, the country has moved into supporting and controlling professional sports, including golf, Formula-1 racing, and football, paying out enormously lucrative contracts to sportsmen like Neymar (who was awarded a $300 million per year contract), or Christian Ranaldo (who was awarded an even higher $315 million per year contract).

However, they don't just want to take over International sports, but technology as well.

MBS initiated a number of years ago the NEOM project, which aims to build a line of city pods from the Gulf of Aqaba (which will be an enormous purpose built city itself), to Tabuk connected by a high speed underground railway, with each pod housing 1000s of workers underground who take care of the researchers on the highest level above ground, all of whom work in 'state-of-the-art' laboratories and office complexes.

The hope is that with facilities such as these, the government will be able to woo the best and the brightest technical minds from all over the world to their NEOM city/pods, which they are hoping will be finished by 2030 AD.

Along with the NEOM project, the government is investing billions of dollars to upgrade their education system, positioning their 4 largest universities to soon compete with Harvard, Yale, Cambridge and Oxford, and even possibly knock them from their perches atop the university grading system.

What then about the 'elephant in the room', the existence of a very conservative Islamic brother-hood, begun by Wahhabi back in the 1700s, which gives religious authority to the Saudi Arabian government so that they can continue to do what they want to do around the world with impunity?

How will the Conservative Muslim clerics react to this rush towards modernization, especially when most of those the government is hoping to attract will not be Muslims themselves, and, just like the incident with Neymar last month, will want to support and even practice their own religious beliefs both privately and publicly?

Will Western women want to move to and live in a country where they have to cover up, or where they will be treated as 2nd class citizens? Will sportsmen or researchers, or executives agree to forgo alcohol or even the freedom of speech that they are used to in the West in lieu of lucrative contracts in Saudi Arabia?

There is a growing collision of cultures already happening, as was evidenced with Neymar's diamond studded cross last month.

Just how far and how long will this most conservative of Muslim countries be able to be flexible in their rush to remain solvent and relevant? Watch this space...

© Pfander Centre for Apologetics - US, Sept. 18, 2023
(85,540) Music: "Justice and Fame" by Rafael Krux, from Filmmusic-io