Saudi King Abdullah has recently been making some progress in the arena of reform. Most recently, he has sacked a hardline religious cleric and replaced him by a more moderate one and the Saudi religious body that issues fatwas will for the first time include clerics from all four bodies of Islamic religious jurisprudence. Up to now, the Saudi religious establishment consisted of clerics only from the strict Hanabali school; a school so conservative that it is only upheld in Saudi Arabia.

Further, King Abdullah has also appointed the first female deputy minister who will oversee the girls education system in the country. The head of the overzealous religious policy has also been fired.

All well and good, but what about a step toward democracy? Saudi kings are usually chosen through a process of inheritance with brothers rising to the throne before sons. This has meant that every Saudi king who comes into office is quite old and some even nearing senility. Abduallah himself is 86. To inject some younger blood into the throne, literally, Abduallah three years ago set up a 25-family member council that will convene and then decide on a new king. The decree grandfathers in Abduallah own’s brother - Sultan - but Sultan is known to be very ill and is heading to New York for treatment. He probably will not outlive his brother. As such, when Abduallah’s time comes the Council will convene and although it will only consist of Saudi princes it will mark the first quasi-democratic election of a Saudi monarch which may set the first stone toward a more plenary democracy.