We should turn Saudi Arabia into a democratic nation

Rebuttals'The Saudi People do not want democracy in their nation.'This is the line repeated by every single dictator today. In peacetime especially, there is no excuse for a dictatorship. Dictatorship is the ultimate form of political cowardice; and exists only as a layer of insulation between the privileged elite and the peasants outside the gaudy palace. If the regime is so popular and the people want the status quo to remain as it is, they have nothing to fear from democracy. Remaining a dictator is an admission that one's regime is unpopular, and in a free market of ideas cannot withstand as it is inferior to the others. Once subjected to scrutiny, I am confident that the regime would collapse.'During the Arab Spring...In Saudi Arabia however, less than 200 protesters caused no more disruption than a few isolated demonstrations.'Firstly, your statistics are completely false.http://edition.presstv.ir...This is from Press TV, an Iranian news agency, hardly biased and western. And even if you attribute it to Iranian bias, you can see at least 200 demonstrators in the photo provided.Estimates from most sources say around 4,000 demonstrators were involved in the protests, which were largely concentrated in Eastern Saudi Arabia. The denominational map of Saudi Arabia concentrates the Shia minority, which amounts to approximately 10% of the population and have been brutally oppressed since the formation of the kingdom in the aftermath of the First World War. I attribute this and the minority ethnic and religious government to the stupidity and ignorance of Britain in the First World War. Britain supported the religious fanatics and tribal minorities fighting the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, and then gave the area of the Arabian peninsula that they didn't control to them.Also. the government of Saudi Arabia announced tax cuts and jobs packages worth $130 billion, nearly a quarter of the country's GDP. All revolutions start with an economic disaster, since it mobilises the general population rather than just political groups. You'll find most people taking part in revolutions in France, Russia, Libya and Tunisia were just demanding employment and food.The 'malcontents' as you so gracefully put it only make up the tip of the iceberg. When there is any major political movement, don't dismiss it as a few malcontents. It is a manifestation of popular opinions, unless there is a significant counterdemonstration in the vicinity.http://www.independent.co.uk...According to this article in the Independent, there is a very vocal online community of dissidents in Saudi Arabia that are not 'Shia malcontents', but The monarchist demonstrations were most likely not out of any great love for the Saudi Royal Family, who are themselves an object of ridicule throughout the world thanks to their professed piety juxtaposed with the liberal use of drugs and prostitutes; but out of love for the tax cuts and jobs packages given.'I was present in Jeddah'Jeddah is in Hedjaz, the area of west and central Saudi Arabia that is the heartland of the monarchy's support base. To judge the strength of the regime's support base by its most loyal constituency is somewhat absurd. One wouldn't go to San Francisco to judge support for President Obama and then come to the conclusion that he was the most popular president of all time.I'm going to need some sources in English, or the audience and I cannot consider them valid.ArgumentSaudi Arabia is among the most autocratic, reactionary and theocratic states in the world, even on Middle Eastern standards. There are no meaningful elections, a small core of the population that amount to roughly 8 million of the 28 million people are given rights over the rest, be it their gender, their nationality or their religion.In Economist Democracy Index, Saudi Arabia finished 160th, six places ahead of North Korea, the least democratic country in the world. The index is ranked on a scale of 1 to 10, North Korea in last with an overall score of 1.08 and Norway in first with an overall score of 9.80. Saudi Arabia achieved a pitiful overall score of 1.84, with 0.00 in Electoral Process and Pluralism, 1.11 in Political Participation and 1.47 in Civil Liberties.http://graphics.eiu.com...The country has become a hotbed for Salafi and Wahhabi extremism, driven largely by the theocratic nature of the state. The constitution of the country is essentially the Quran, it even has a verse proclaiming Allah to be the only God and Muhammad his prophet; its hatred of women, Shiites and other religious and tribal minorities; apostasy, adultery, witchcraft and sorcery being capital crimes; the medieval systems of corporal punishment the civilised world has long since abolished; and the state endorsement of radical Islamist sects. It is no coincidence that the 9/11 attackers were from Saudi Arabia, given the immense presence of religion in civil society.There are also bans on women driving, since according to a notable cleric, 'it risks damaging the women's ovaries'; an uncovered body save the eyes and hands when outside, the consumption of alcohol (though Saudi princes are no strangers to it), the consumption of pork, walking dogs, buying and selling pets, camera phones, cinemas and concert venues, music lessons in schools, intergender mixing outside of marriage, places of worship for non-Islamic religions and pornography. The tragically unironically-named Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice enforce these laws rigorously, quashing any resistance to the fabricated bans that are reminiscent of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.There is no logical cause for support for the established regime, other than the fact that millions of years ago, lots of sea creatures died there and were fossilised and compressed into hydrocarbons. There is no case for the al Saud monarch in its current state, or even possibly the existence of the state itself within its colonialist borders that make no real sense.The argument employed by all the decaying European Absolute Monarchies when the peasants were at the gates of the palace was 'It is how we have always done things, and change only brings chaos'. This is invalid in the modern world, where there is no semi-legitimate excuse for tyranny, and any real debate would result in autocracies dissolving like cubes of of sugar in hot tea.