A New “Founding Day” and the Transformation of Saudi Society 

Earlier this year King Salman bin Abdulaziz issued a royal decree designating February 22 Saudi Arabia’s “Founding Day,” commemorating the founding of the first Saudi state, which took place, according to the decree, in February 1727. The decree indicates a break with the Wahhabi political narrative that had previously pointed to the alliance between the House of Saud and the Wahhabi religious establishment as the foundational moment of the Saudi state. More than signifying a break with the Wahhabi establishment, the decree reveals the founding of a new national narrative for Saudi Arabia that is reshaping the kingdom’s society and politics.

What is behind the current Saudi leadership’s drive to displace Wahhabism and build a new national narrative? What does this new national narrative mean for the political present and future of Saudi Arabia? What factors contributed to the abandonment of the previous narrative? And what does it reveal about Wahhabism both in the kingdom and in the wider region? How do Saudis, especially Saudi youth, view these changes?

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