The House of Saud can no longer bribe its people and Arab neighbours into silence. Throughout the Middle East, Islamic movements deplore the Saudi royal family’s waste of the country’s wealth on private expenditure and costly Western armaments. They are also opposed to the immorality of a dynasty whose men have purchased women in bulk and plundered the country’s oil revenues in pursuit of pleasure and who cling to retrograde policies such as expelling, imprisoning and executing dissenters. The developed countries of the West, in particular the USA, are committed to seeing on the Saudi Arabian throne a king who will keep the oil flowing at the right price. Yet the future of the country is likely to see the birth of a militant, vengeful Islamic regime and a huge increase in the price of oil, possibly leading to a world depression and even greater conflict between the West and the Islamic world.