As-Suwaidi (Riyadh)

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Al-Suwaidi (Arabic: السويدي) is a district, in southwestern Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

It is one of Riyadh's "residential districts", and compared with the standards of Riyadh is overpopulated.[1]

Demographics[]

As of 2005, more than 500,000 people lived in the area.[2] As of that year, many middle-income Saudis lived in Al-Suwaidi.[1] Many people migrating from the rural areas went to Al-Suwaidi during the "oil boom" in the 1970s and early 1980s.[1] Shaker Abu Taleb and Asharq Al-Awsat of the Arab News said in 2005 that the community "was originally beyond the capital's congestion; that is, however, no longer the case."[1] Bradley said that Al-Suwaidi has a reputation "for being a bastion of strict Wahhabism" within the people living in Saudi Arabia. Bradley added that the men "hardly need incitement" to contrast their own lives with wealthy Saudi princes and foreigners.[2]

Association with terrorism[]

The district gained notoriety in 2003 when a 26-man list of "most wanted terrorists" published by the Saudi government contained 15 men who were said to have links with the neighbourhood.[1][3] Shaker Abu Taleb and Asharq Al-Awsat of the Arab News said that many Saudis compared Al-Suwaidi to Fallujah, Iraq, a site of fighting during the Iraq War.[1]

Ibrahim al-Rayyes, a terrorist suspect killed in a shootout with police, lived in Al-Suwaidi. In a 2003 list of most wanted Islamic fundamentalist militants, al-Rayyes and about 14 of the 26 other suspects had either come from or lived in Al-Suwaidi. More than half of those suspects were graduates of Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University.[4]

In popular culture[]

The district and its involvement in terrorist activities have featured in multiple works, e.g.:

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Taleb, Shaker Abu; Al-Awsat, Asharq (January 9, 2005). "Al-Suwaidi: In the News for All the Wrong Reasons". Arab News. Archived from the original on May 23, 2012. Retrieved December 22, 2011.,
  2. ^ a b Bradley, John R. (2005). Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 146.
  3. ^ "Profile: Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin". BBC News. UK: BBC. June 19, 2004.
  4. ^ Bradley, John R. (2005). Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 147.

Coordinates: 24°35′N 46°40′E / 24.59°N 46.67°E / 24.59; 46.67

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