PISSING OFF THE SAUDIS

  Saudi Arabia has asked Canada’s ambassador to leave the country within 24 hours, just two days after Canada criticized the arrest of women’s rights and other civil society activists in the Arab kingdom.
   The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Canada of making “false” statements and interfering with Saudi internal affairs, and said ambassador Dennis Horak was no longer welcome in the country. The Saudi ambassador to Ottawa was summoned back to the kingdom for consultations. Saudi Arabia will also freeze all new trade and investment transactions with Canada.

  

   Another perspective on the matter: It appears to me that Crown Prince Mohammed is worried that his reforms, such as permitting women to drive, could provoke hardcore Wahhabi clerics into urging an overthrow of the Royal Family's autocratic rule. The last thing he wants is for foreign countries to add momentum to those reforms so that the social changes could be portrayed as being driven by infidels in Canada or anywhere else in the West.