mitchwagner:

“Praising Abdullah as a reformer, in addition to being misleading, seems to imply that Saudi Arabia should be held to a lesser standard than the rest of humanity, and that its citizens should be somehow grateful for Abdullah’s minor adjustments to a system that remains cruelly unjust.”

Paraphrasing a friend: He was trying to move Saudi Arabia from the 7th Century to the 8th Century. That’s progress, right?