A grand Saudi experiment

In this news post at sciam a really interesting project in Saudi Arabia is going to take place. The Saudi king is endowing a brand new university (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology or KAUST) with $10 billion dollars. But not only that, he is barring the moral police and allowing all the western freedoms on campus (women and men will both be admitted and share classrooms and (on campus) women can drive a car and may even be allowed to dress as non-ninjas. Also, the university is suppose to be completely autonomous with no government intervention. I think this is an experiment since for one thing in a theocracy how can some people be happy with all these restrictive laws but then fine to leave this university alone? Not to mention there is nothing more anti-religious than science. Of course the university is primarily focused on technology, not real basic science so that will help. But I wonder how many students from non-arab countries will want to go to a university in the heart of Saudi Arabia and more importantly how many professors. If this is successful, and the trend spills over to other wealthy arab countries in 20 years with a well educated based of people the culture war in these countries would make America's pale by comparison. This will be a grand experiment (although I wouldn't go for fear of what happens when your off campus) to *watch*.