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| See also: | Other events of 2002 History of Saudi Arabia | ||||
The following lists events during 2002 in Saudi Arabia .
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| Decades: | |||||
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| See also: | Other events of 2002 History of Saudi Arabia | ||||
The following lists events during 2002 in Saudi Arabia .
Also on 11th March, a number of school girls in Mecca were killed, because religious police men did not allow regular police men and firemen to enter the school as the girls did not have hijabs on. ( this is known as 2002 Mecca girls' school fire
The history of Saudi Arabia as a nation state began with the emergence of the Al Saud dynasty in central Arabia in 1727 and the subsequent establishment of the Emirate of Diriyah. Pre-Islamic Arabia, the territory that constitutes modern Saudi Arabia, was the site of several ancient cultures and civilizations; the prehistory of Saudi Arabia shows some of the earliest traces of human activity in the world.
The Saudi Arabian Armed Forces (SAAF), also known as the Royal Saudi Armed Forces, is part of the military forces of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It consists of the Royal Saudi Army, the Royal Saudi Navy, the Royal Saudi Air Force, the Royal Saudi Air Defense, and the Royal Saudi Strategic Missile Force. The King of Saudi Arabia is the Supreme commander-in-chief of all the Military Forces and forms military policy with the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior. The five Armed Forces are among eight military forces of Saudi Arabia, with the others including the Royal Saudi National Guard, the Royal Saudi Guard Regiment and the Royal Saudi Border Guards.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic absolute monarchy in which Sunni Islam is the official state religion based on firm Sharia law. Non-Muslims must practice their religion in private and are vulnerable to discrimination and arrest. While no law requires all citizens to be Muslim, non-Muslim foreigners attempting to acquire Saudi Arabian nationality must convert to Islam. Children born to Muslim fathers are by law deemed Muslim, and conversion from Islam to another religion is considered apostasy and punishable by death. Blasphemy against Sunni Islam is also punishable by death, but the more common penalty is a long prison sentence; there have been 'no confirmed reports of executions for either apostasy or blasphemy' in the 21st century.
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about 2150000 km2, making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Arab world, and the largest in West Asia and the Middle East. It is bordered by the Red Sea to the west; Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait to the north; the Persian Gulf, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to the east; Oman to the southeast; and Yemen to the south. Bahrain is an island country off its east coast. The Gulf of Aqaba in the northwest separates Saudi Arabia from Egypt and Israel. Saudi Arabia is the only country with a coastline along both the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and most of its terrain consists of arid desert, lowland, steppe, and mountains. Saudi Arabia's capital and largest city is Riyadh; the kingdom also is the location of Islam's two holiest cities of Mecca and Medina.
The Ottoman/Egyptian-Wahhabi War also known as the Ottoman/Egyptian-Saudi War (1811–1818) was fought from early 1811 to 1818, between the Ottoman Empire and the Emirate of Diriyah, the First Saudi State, resulting in the destruction of the latter.
Salafi Islam is the state religion of Saudi Arabia. The connection between Islam and modern-day Saudi Arabia is uniquely strong. The kingdom is called the "home of Islam"; the kingdom is also the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad, with all territories of Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula being united and ruled by him. It is the location of the cities of Mecca and Medina, where Muhammad, the messenger of the Islamic faith, lived and died. The kingdom attracts millions of Muslim Hajj pilgrims annually, and thousands of clerics and students who come from across the Muslim world to study. The official title of the King of Saudi Arabia is "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques"—the two being Al-Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Al-Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina—which are considered the holiest in Islam.
The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is a government religious authority in Saudi Arabia that is charged with implementing the Islamic doctrine of hisbah in the country. Established in 1940, the body gained extensive powers in the 1980s and continued to function as a civilian law enforcement agency throughout the reigns of King Fahd and King Abdullah until the societal reforms of 2016 led to limiting some its authority through a royal decree by King Salman, including the rights of pursuing, questioning, detaining and interrogating suspects.
The Grand Mosque seizure, by the Juhayman group, lasted from 20 November 1979 to 4 December 1979, when extremist militants in Saudi Arabia calling for the overthrow of the House of Saud besieged and took over Masjid al-Haram, the holiest Islamic site, in the city of Mecca. The besieging militia who referred to themselves as the 'al-Ikhwan', in reference to the religious militia Ikhwan that played a part in establishing Saudi Arabia, declared that the Mahdi had arrived in the form of one of their leaders: Muhammad Abdullah al-Qahtani; the militants called on all Muslims to obey him. In the aftermath of the seizure, the Saudi Arabian Army, supported by France through advisors from the GIGN, fought the Ikhwan for almost two weeks in order to reclaim Masjid al-Haram.
Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Sheikh is a Saudi Arabian scholar who is the current Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. As such he is head of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars and its sub-committee, the Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Issuing Fatwas.
Bilateral relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia have been strained over several geopolitical issues, such as aspirations for regional leadership, oil export policy and relations with the United States and other Western countries. Diplomatic relations were suspended from 1987 to 1990, and in 2016 for seven years following certain issues like the intervention in Yemen, Iran embassy bombing in Yemen, incidents in 2015 Hajj, the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, the attack on the Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran. However, in March 2023, after discussions brokered by China, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to reestablish relations.
China–Saudi Arabia relations refers to the current and historical bilateral relationship between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi government does not conduct a census on religion or ethnicity, but some sources estimate the Shiite population in Saudi Arabia to make up around 10–15% of the approximately 23 million natives of Saudi Arabia. The modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was formed in 1932 by the House of Saud, who are followers of a movement within Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism. Followers of the Wahhabite mission—who dominate religious institutions, courts and education of the kingdom—believe that "Muslims should return to the interpretation of Islam found in the classical texts, the Quran and the Sunnah." They also believe that "Muslims who seek intercession from holy men, such as the imams revered by Shiites, are not 'true' Muslims."
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) are neighbouring countries in the Middle East and Persian Gulf region, and share extensive political and cultural ties. Saudi Arabia maintains an embassy in Abu Dhabi and a consulate in Dubai of the U.A.E., while the U.A.E. has an embassy in Riyadh and a consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Israel–Saudi Arabia relations refer to the bilateral ties between the State of Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The two countries have never established diplomatic relations; in 1947, Saudi Arabia voted against the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, which aimed to split the territory of British Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state. As of 2023, negotiations to establish diplomatic relations were ongoing.
The modern history of Saudi Arabia begins with the declaration of the unification of Saudi Arabia in a single kingdom in 1932. This period of time in Saudi Arabia's history includes the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia and many invents. It goes on to encompass Saudi Arabia's brief involvement in World War II in 1945. Afterwards, it includes Saudi Arabia's involvement in the Western Bloc and the Cold War. It also includes Saudi Arabia's proxy conflict with Iran, the Arab Spring, and the ongoing Arab Winter.
Saudi Arabia is a theocracy organized according to the principles of Islam, which puts emphasis on the importance of knowledge and education. In Islamic belief, obtaining knowledge is the only way to gain true understanding of life, and as such, both men and women are encouraged to study. The way of practicing Wahhabi Islam has therefore led to gendered segregation in education in Saudi Arabia, which further perpetuates gender division in political, economic, and labor force environments.
Starting in the mid-1970s and 1980s, Salafism and Wahhabism — along with other Sunni interpretations of Islam favored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies — achieved a "preeminent position of strength in the global expression of Islam."
France–Saudi Arabia relations are the foreign relations between France and Saudi Arabia. Diplomatic relations began in 1926. Today Saudi Arabia is an ally of France, with strong economic, military and political coordination on many topics such as Iran's nuclear program and the departure of Bashar Al Assad. The relationship has been called a global strategic partnership. France has an embassy in Riyadh, and a consulate-general in Jeddah. Saudi Arabia has an embassy in Paris. Both countries are members of G20.