Al-Suwaidi (Riyadh)

Al-Suwaidi

حي السويدي
Al-Suwaidi حي السويدي
Neighbourhood
	Al Suwaidi Park
Country	Saudi Arabia
City	Riyadh
Government
• Body	Baladiyah Al Urayja
Language
• Official	Arabic

Al-Suwaidi (Arabic: السويدي, lit. 'bitter soil') is a residential neighborhood and a subject of Baladiyah al-Urayja located on the right bank of Wadi Hanifa in southwestern Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.^[1] It is one of the city's 'residential districts' and is relatively overpopulated in terms of the standards of Riyadh.^[2]

Demographics

As of 2005, more than 500,000 people lived in the area.^[3] As of that year, many middle-income Saudis lived in Al-Suwaidi.^[2] Many people migrating from the rural areas went to Al-Suwaidi during the "oil boom" in the 1970s and early 1980s.^[2] 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."^[2] 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.^[3]

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.^[2]^[4] 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.^[2]

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.^[5]

In popular culture

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

The Kingdom (2007), starring Jamie Foxx
Traitor (2008), starring Don Cheadle

References

^ Menoret, Pascal (2020-07-07). Graveyard of Clerics: Everyday Activism in Saudi Arabia. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-1-5036-1247-1.
^ ^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.,
^ ^a ^b Bradley, John R. (2005). Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 146.
^ "Profile: Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin". BBC News. UK: BBC. June 19, 2004.
^ Bradley, John R. (2005). Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 147.