In the third of his series Jason Burke reports on growing tensions as clergy oppose incremental moves away from conservative Islam
King Abdullah (right) has been supported by the religious establishment in crisis after crisis, but tensions remain. Photograph: Reuters On a Friday at one o'clock, Sheikh Saad Bin Na
It is a moderate message from a man who even in fiercely conservative Saudi Arabia, home to the most rigorous strands of Muslim practice in the world, is considered a hardliner. Only 18 months ago, Shethri, 46, was fired from the country’s high council of religious scholars by King Abdullah, who has ruled the kingdom since 2005.
His offence was to have criticised the king’s decision to allow male and female researchers to work together at the new multibillion pound science university built on the Red Sea coast. The king had called the university, a key part of Saudi Arabia’s drive towards economic modernisation, a “beacon of tolerance”. Shethri retorted that “mixing [genders] is a great sin and a great evil … When men mix with women, their hearts burn and they will be diverted from their main goal [of] education.”
Shethri remains unrepentant. In an interview with the Guardian, his first with a western newspaper, he says the duty of religious scholars is to advise sovereign rulers but also “to make governors fear God if they err from the right path and to remind them of God’s punishment if they continue to err”.
In an implicit criticism of the hugely wealthy royal family, Shethri said the Qur’an teaches money should not be admired nor should the rich be envied. The poorer you are, he said, “the less you will have to account for in this life and the next”.
Categories: Asia, Islam, Law and Religion, Middle East, Saudi Arabia