Obeying becomes a survival technique...at a certain point, but that point cannot be reached without the fatuous support of a lot of people for their leaders prior to that point being reached. Ask yourself when that point might be reached in your own society. It's not just a question here of how bad the Saudis are. This kind of thing happens in many societies when a powerful authority group at the top...an elite...whether they be a religious or a political or an industrial elite...or all of those...when they overstep their bounds and begin practicing what amounts to thought control over a population.

How do they do it? Through fear-mongering, and through crudely emotional appeals to patriotism, faith, "God and country", and established traditions of unquestioning obedience to higher authority. That's how they do it.

It can happen anywhere. It's not a problem limited to Islamic societies. Zenophobia and ignorance can flourish under ANY system whose leaders decide to promote zenophobia and ignorance. Their hope and joy is that they can also find zenophobia and ignorance (of a different outer form, of course) being practiced by the very people they wish to make war upon... ;-) It serves as a good excuse for justifying the war.

Hitler told the Germans in 1939 that the Poles were doing terrible things to German residents of Poland, and that it had to be stopped. He found plenty of willing ears in Germany to support a pre-emptive attack on Poland. They felt justified.