Saudi Arabia is leading a counter- revolution against the sweeping political changes in the Middle East by using money, force and God.
As popular movements for democracy toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia and began threatening neighboring Bahrain and Yemen, Saudi Arabia's Al Saud royal family strengthened control over the Arab world's biggest economy. Once restrictive of the Muslim clerics, King Abdullah offered money and new censorship powers for their loyalty as he doled out 500 billion riyals ($130 billion) nationally in housing grants and other sweeteners.
Saudi Arabia arrested more than 160 dissidents since February as part of the government's crackdown on protests, Human Rights Watch said in April.
Earlier in the year, Tunisia's President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak were toppled, the first leaders to go as uprisings spread. Demonstrators and security forces are still facing off in Syria and Yemen. In Libya, NATO forces are two months into a bombing campaign against Muammar Qaddafi as he battles with rebels.
The allegiance from King Abdullah's 110,000-man National Guard and the Interior Ministry, controlled by Prince Nayef, wasn't challenged during the unrest.
Abdullah, who is 87 this year, dispatched soldiers to help the fellow Sunni Muslim monarchy in Bahrain crush protests led mainly by Shiites, who make up the majority of the island's population.
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