伊斯兰教与现代化——沙特阿拉伯王国的传统与现实

ISLAM AND MODERNIZATION——THE TRADITION AND REALITY IN THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA

现代沙特阿拉伯王国的历史开始于本世纪30年代。在第一次世界大战结束以后的十多年中,伊本·沙特以瓦哈比教派的教义为精神武器,逐步“推翻了半岛中部地区内志省拉希德人的统治,推翻了在包括麦加和麦地那的红海沿岸地区汉志省的哈什米特人的统治”。

Thanks to the large income of oil US dollars, Saudi Arabia, since 1970s,could carry out four successive five year development plans and accelerate the advancing step on the road of modernization. But, at the same time, Islamicrelegion has still played an important role in society; like any othertraditionalreligion, it always conflicts with the way of modernization fiercely and unavoi-dably. For a long time Saudi Arabia has coatinually mannged to relieve theseconflicts and contradictions through the use of Islamic self-adjusting functionand a pragmatistic explanation of the Islamic doctrine. The royal cycle in thecountry, even so, will have to find itself in a dilemma in future development.On the one hand, it will keep its policies for modernization going on, on theother hand, it has to find something out of Islamic doctrine to explain thepolicies and their effects so as to convince the people and maintain the traditi-onal society infact; meanwhile it has to make every efforts to avoid or postponethe possible eruption of social conflicts and turbulence. Indeed, in a societywith so many divergences between tradition and reality as Saudi Arabia, newcontradictions and conflicts will be inevitable in further medernization.