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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Saudi Arabia
Index
The primary executive office of the king is the Royal Diwan.
The king's principal advisers for domestic politics, religious
affairs, and international relations have offices in the Royal
Diwan. The king's private office also is in the Royal Diwan. The
king conducts most routine government affairs from this office,
including the drafting of regulations and royal decrees. In
addition, the heads of several government departments have their
offices in the diwan. These include the chief of protocol, the
Office of Beduin Affairs; the Department of Religious Research,
Missionary Activities, and Guidance; and, as well, the
mutawwiin or Committees for the Propagation of Virtue and
Prevention of Vice (popularly known as the Committees for Public
Morality). The Department of Religious Research, Missionary
Activities, and Guidance is headed by the most senior of the
country's ulama. In 1992 this person was the blind religious
scholar Shaykh Abd al Aziz ibn Baz, who spent much of his time in
Medina, where he was in charge of the Prophet's Mosque.
The king also held his regular majlis, or court, in the Royal
Diwan. The purpose of the majlis was to provide Saudi citizens an
opportunity to make personal appeals to the king for redress of
grievances or assistance in private matters. Plaintiffs typically
sought the king's intervention with the state's bureaucracy.
During the reigns of King Khalid and King Fahd, it was customary
for each person attending the majlis to explain his complaints
and simultaneously present a written petition, which the monarch
would later study and answer in a subsequent session.
Data as of December 1992
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