Arab Liberalism, in a nutshell. Arab liberals just happen to love the Wahhabi House of Saud. The self-described Arab liberal (and former Stalinist Marxist), Shakir An-Nabulsi, for example, wrote a book of praise for the poetry of Prince Khalid Al-Faysal. Of course, nobody in the Arab world has read or praised his poetry: and An-Nabulsi criticized Arab literary critics for ignoring the poetry of the Saudi prince. I once encountered the poetry of Prince Khalid at a great Falafil shop in Beirut: Barbar: he for a while used the poetry pages of Prince Khalid to wrap his falafil sandwiches. He must have, like everybody else, received free copies. Mr. Liberal Nabulsim said in an interview with NBN-TV that Prince Khalid is "a pioneer in Arab thought," and in the thought of "modernity"--Arab liberals just discovered modernity and they think that they sound sophisticated when they invoke "modernity." Mr. Nabulsi also called on Saudi Arabia to sponsor an "intellectual center". Of course, Nabulsi's appreciation of the poetry of Prince Khalid (here is a smaple of the poetry: "I saw my life; as a shadow in a cloud". Did you enjoy?) is totally innocent and is interest-free. It is purely based on pure love of........poetry. And how can you disagree with Mr. Nabulsi (who as a habit of identifying himself with different very fancy titles: he is sometimes secretary-general of the Middle East Minories' Committee of the Middle East AND North Africa (no less), and other times he is "Chairman, American Interuniveristy Consortium (AIC) for Middle Eastern AND Islamic Studies." Now me and my colleagues are active in Middle East studies in the US, and none of the people I know know anything about this fancy-sounding "consortium." In fact, I was influenced by that title. From now on, please address me as: ...Chairperson, American Falafil Interuniversity Consortium for Eggplants and Appetizers. But don't be unfair: I mean would you not say that the intellectual and philosophical contributions of Prince Khalid (and his brothers, nephews, and grandsons (women are invisible in the House, of course) are comparable to the intellectual and phisophical contributions of Adorno and Horkheimer? Of course. Of course. Or Naturlich, as the Germans say.
PS Yes, somebody reminded me that Prince Khalid also paints. Yes, he does. And if you love the covers of Herlequin Romance novels, you would love his paintings.