Is Islam as intractable as the Pope seems to believe? On the other side of the issue, The Economist last week did a “special” on Saudi Arabia, leaving quite an upbeat impression. The country is inching toward liberalization. It’s slow, but stuff is happening. Remember, for example, that 2002 fire in a girls’ school, when 15 girls died because religious police wouldn’t let them leave the burning building without their veils?

The Economist says this “led to the sacking of the Wahhabist head of girl’s education and the department’s absorption into the education ministry.” Well, that’s progress.

Deeply religious socities — even theocracies or near-theocracies — can turn to modern postindustrial hedonism with surprising speed. Ask a Spaniard; ask an Irishman. It can happen. The Economist piece left me thinking it might happen in SA.

Then the qualifications come in, of course. SA has been pretty much left alone for several decades. (“Few outsiders realise that this is one of only four Muslim countries that were never colonised by Europe, and the only one never invaded.”) It is monocultural. (“The kingdom is the only country in the world, except perhaps North Korea, where the practice of all faiths but one is officially banned. Even other forms of Islam are frowned upon.”) Net-net, I am not sure that those stupendous oil reserves are a benefit, but they at least give sensible rulers some leeway for experimental reforms, and SA’s current rulers seem sensible by Middle East standards.

In places where these things do not apply, reform of Islam may not be possible. SA may be a best case. Still, the fixation on Islam as the fundamental problem may be misplaced.