, at
Europa Point Gibraltar, which opened in 1997, is one such mosque. When King Khalid died on 13 June 1982, Fahd succeeded to the throne being the fifth king of Saudi Arabia. In fact, according to
United States Secretary of State Alexander Haig, Fahd told Haig in April 1981 that he had been used as an intermediary by President
Jimmy Carter to convey an official U.S. "
green light to launch the war against Iran" to Iraq, although there is considerable skepticism about this claim. This decision brought him considerable criticism and opposition from many Saudi citizens, who objected to the presence of foreign troops on Saudi soil; Another consequence of this was the formation of two distinct and increasingly polarised spheres amongst university-educated Saudis. Foreign educated returnees from American and European universities typically occupied well-paid jobs in prestigious ministries with high salaries added with the prestige of being the vanguard of the civil service and
government-owned corporations keeping the kingdom on its feet. This was due to such graduates having acquired technical and linguistic skills necessary for such jobs. Meanwhile, local educated Saudis, often having graduated from humanities, found themselves working low-ranking, clerical jobs in the civil service with modest salaries. Overtime, this led to growing resentment amongst local graduates.
Anti-western rhetoric and a call to return to an ultra-orthodox and more religious lifestyle by Wahhabi clerics grew more popular amongst this segment of Saudi society. This was further worsened by increased competition as oil prices continued to drop and more foreign workers kept being issues visas to work in the kingdom. During this period, the phenomenon of having the same family being divided amongst these lines become more common. The archetype of the ultraconservative Saudi man preaching to his family and friends, showing strong distaste for Western culture, listening to religious cassettes and refusing to take pictures would begin to be cultivated. The term
mutawwa' would often be used pejoratively by more liberal Saudis to describe such conservative Saudis.
1995 stroke and aftermath assumed some of the duties of government after King Fahd's stroke in 1995. King Fahd was a heavy smoker, overweight for much of his adult life, and in his sixties began to suffer from
arthritis and severe
diabetes. though he still attended meetings and received selected visitors. In November 2003, according to government media, King Fahd was quoted as saying to "strike with an iron fist" at terrorists after
deadly bombings in Saudi Arabia, although he could hardly utter a word because of his deteriorating health. However, it was Crown Prince Abdullah who took official trips; when King Fahd traveled, it was for vacations, and he was sometimes absent from Saudi Arabia for months at a time. When his oldest son and
International Olympic Committee member Prince
Faisal bin Fahd died in 1999, the King was in Spain and did not return for the funeral. In a speech to an Islamic conference on 30 August 2003, King Fahd condemned terrorism and exhorted Muslim clerics to emphasize peace, security, cooperation, justice, and tolerance in their sermons. ==Wealth==