I was reading this article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/24/i-will-return-saudi-arabia-moderate-islam-crown-prince
and here are some things that I could not find any information or sources for:
In an interview with the Guardian, the powerful heir to the Saudi throne said the ultra-conservative state had been “not normal” for the past 30 years, blaming rigid doctrines that have governed society in a reaction to the Iranian revolution, which successive leaders “didn’t know how to deal with”.
“What happened in the last 30 years is not Saudi Arabia. What happened in the region in the last 30 years is not the Middle East. After the Iranian revolution in 1979, people wanted to copy this model in different countries, one of them is Saudi Arabia. We didn’t know how to deal with it. And the problem spread all over the world. Now is the time to get rid of it.”
"Earlier Prince Mohammed had said: “We are simply reverting to what we followed – a moderate Islam open to the world and all religions.”
I cant find anything anywhere that references the pre-1979 Saudi Arabia he is talking about. Can the historians on this sub give me a truthful interpretation and analysis of these claims?
All the material I can find suggests that Saudi Arabia was founded on the premises and doctrines of takfiri salafi wahhabism, an ideology that claims according to literal interpretations of scripture from the muslim Qoran that in the final chapters there is some text about how that which appears later in the Qoran supersedes that which comes earlier, and thus muslims must kill all the jews and christians, and the concept of takfir (which means to invoke the aspects of sin upon something) is what they use to justify the enslavement or forced conversion or execution of those who are not of the same exact islamic faith as them. they used this ideology just like ISIS to create saudi arabia, which is just the adding of the name saud (the royal family) to "al arabiah".
edit: elaborations
I believe you are slightly misreading what Prince Muhammad bin Salman's quote there. I cannot find the Arabic version of this quote, so I assumed you are confused about this particular part:
What happened in the last 30 years is not Saudi Arabia. What happened in the region in the last 30 years is not the Middle East.
"Region" منطقة (mintaqa) or "zone"/"province" اقليم ('iiqilim) can be a reference to a country or an area/region which can mean more than just one country. What I am certain about is the translator not using the word "country" بلد (balad), where this suggests the crown prince is not referencing Saudi Arabia itself but the "region". You are sort of right to make the assumption no single Saudi policy changed in 1979. In reality, historians have argued Saudi religious and state policy evolved over time to be synonymous in a sense that the religion and the state required each other to survive. With the combined elements of extremism in Wahhabism, the Saudi state had no choice to succumb to its rhetoric. Although there is no one policy shift, there is one important event that probably answers your question.
In 1979, a number of extremist insurgents (couple hundred), who called themselves al-Ikhwan (the Brothers) took over the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The Ikhwan was first created in 1902 from the breakup of Bedouin tribes on the Arabian peninsula. This group contained a number of extremist Sunni clerics who advocated the purification of Islam, where they helped Ibn Saud conquer the Arabian peninsula. But due to the difficulty of containing and controlling the Ikhwan, who went on to massacre nonbelievers of the Wahhabi interpretation of the Shari'a in Ahasa' in 1913 and in Ta'if in 1924, the newly formed Saudi state ultimately killed and exiled the Ikhwan in 1925. The new group in 1979 opposed the Saudi state because its stance on allowing Western influence to enter the Holy Land of Mecca and Medina. The siege of the Grand Mosque went on for weeks as Islam forbids any violence in the Grand Mosque. The Saudi government had Imams issue fatwas that gave the Saudi army special permission to use deadly force in the Grand Mosque. This caused some upset in the Sunni religious community as they preferred the strategy of starving the Ikhwan rather than using deadly force in the Grand Mosque. Lacey argued the solution to religious upheaval, such as the Grand Mosque Seizure, was simple - more religion.
What happened in Saudi Arabia before the Grand Mosque Seizure did not exactly have any "liberal" elements, nor "moderate" in the Western sense. Since the 18th century, the House of Saud and the Wahhabi clerics relied on each other. The Wahhab clerics required Saudi funding and official recognition to spread their ideas, and the Saudi royal family needed the clerics' relgiious sanction to prove their legitimacy. Their alliance continued evolve as clerics issued fatwas rationalizing actions by the state while the Saudis granted clerics leeway to set the cultural agenda for the new state in the early 20th century.
Going back to my first point about translation issues, Prince Muhammad might just be referencing to the effects of the 1979 Iranian Revolution that spread across the Arab population. Similar to the impact of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt, Ayatollah Khomeini openly criticized Sunni Arab Monarchs such as the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia and Jordan for its corruption of Western materialism. An interpretation of what the crown prince may have been just a statement to condemn Iran's Islamic Republic. "Moderate Islam" can also be interpreted as non-Shia Islam and to reinforce the hostility between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Historian Thompson argues these Islamic revolutions, such as the 1979 Iranian Revolution, turned to violence not because of the nature of Islam, but that social stress imposed by authoritarian governments forced ordinary Arabs/Muslims to protest and revolt. Indeed, what the Saudi government may or may not realize is they need to provide some freedom but still maintain a sense of monarch that balances between the happiness and unrest of the Saudi people.
Sources
Lacey, Robert. Inside the Kingdom : Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia. Viking Penguin. London. 2009.
Thompson, Elizabeth F. Justice Interrupted: The Struggle for Constitutional Government in the Middle East. Harvard University Press. Cambridge. 2013.
Guazzone, Laura, and Daniela Pioppi. Interpreting Change in the Aab World. In the Arab State and Neo-Liberal Globalization: The Restructuring of State Power in the Middle East. edited by Laura Guazzone and Daniela Pioppi Reading, UK. Ithaca Press. 2009.
Kepel, GIlles. Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. Translated by Anthony F. Roberts. Cambridge. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 2002.