| Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Shaikh Abdul Aziz Al Alshaikh, the highest religious authority in the country banned a newspaper interview with poplar writer Mr. Abdul Aziz Alqassim from appearing in AlMadina daily Friday July 18th, SIA has learned.
In the interview, Mr. Alqasim criticized the education system of Saudi Arabia, saying that the radical materials that are being taught in Saudi religious schools are 400 years old, and not suitable for the current needs of the Saudi citizens.
The Saudi independence website “elaf” reported that Al Alshaikh made two phone calls to Mr. Alqassim telling him to remove parts of his interview, especially in regard to tolerance among Muslims in the past. Alqasim, a Sunni Muslim, said Sunni Muslim clerics frequently used the religious opinions of Shia Muslim scholars throughout Islamic history and prior to Wahhabi domination of Saudi Arabia.
Currently 3 million Saudi embrace Shia Islam but are banned by Wahhabi religious institution from practicing their religious freedom.
Also, Mr. Alqassim emphasized that radical Muslim movements around the world who are labeling other Muslims as “infidels,” copied their ideas from the literature of contemporary Saudi Wahhabi clerics.
Mr. Alqassim, 40, is graduate of the same religious schools that he criticizing.
Al-Alshaikh also suspended Saudi columnist Abdulaah Bajaad Al-Otaibi from writing in AlRiyadh newspaper three weeks ago, after he asserted that local Wahhabi clerics were the source of terrorism and extremism engulfing the country. Al-Alshaikh is a descendent of Shaikh Mohamed Ben Abdulwahab, the founder of Wahhabi Islam in the 18th Century.
Attempts to reach Mr. Alqasim were unsuccessful. |
