Two days after the death of King Fahad, and nothing seems to be abnormal. The newspapers have expanded crazily to contain the condolences pages, and the TV channels programming is divided between remembering King Fahad and celebrating King Abdullah. Saudis are sad, but they are neither surprised nor shocked.

The international media focused on the smooth transition of power. But I think that was given by looking to the way things used to be in the last few years. King Abdullah has been effectively ruling the country since King Fahad’s stroke in 1995.

It was expected also that there would not be any major changes in international or domestic policies. The only expected change would be a stronger relationship with the U.S. because, as the NY Times reported in several articles, “the new king has a warm relationship with President Bush.”

Saudis have started to speculate about who’s going to be appointed in the still-vacant third spot in the royal chain of command. The expectations is that position will go to Prince Nayif bin Abdul Aziz, the powerful interior minister, or Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, the governor of Riyadh. However, I think most Saudis would like to see someone from the younger generation of the royal family in this spot.

Something I noticed was the statement of the Grand Mofti, who called Muslims to swear their allegiance to the new King. I can understand if he called Saudis to do so, but why would he call Muslims, all Muslims, as if Saudi Arabia was the homeland of all Muslims or something? Islam is a universal religion, and no country can take it as an exclusive right to them. Am I missing something here?