KING ABDULLAH of Saudi Arabia has weakened the hold of Islamic hardliners by appointing the first woman to a ministerial post and dismissing a leading fundamentalist cleric and the head of the nation's powerful religious police.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The reshuffle indicated that the monarch was frustrated with the pace of reform in a kingdom uneasily balanced between moderates and ultra-conservatives. By broadening the voices of modern Islamic thinkers, the king is trying to refashion the religious establishment as the country faces the global financial crisis and renewed threats from al-Qaeda militants.
The king, 84, dismissed Sheik Ibrahim al-Ghaith as head of the Commission of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which oversees the religious police who arrest people considered impure, such as women not properly veiled. He also removed Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan as chief of the highest religious tribunal. Last year, Sheik al-Lihedan issued a fatwa saying it was permissible to kill TV executives for broadcasting "evil" and immoral programs.
Noura al-Fayez, of the Saudi Institute for Public Administration, was elevated to the new post of deputy minister of women's education. The women's education ministry is regarded as highly corrupt and her appointment appeared to be the king's response to lobbying from rights groups to stem discrimination.
In another sign that the king was pushing for more openness within the country's puritanical Wahhabi brand of Islam, the Saudi Press Agency said the body of religious scholars known as the Grand Ulama Commission would be re-established and made up of more moderate Sunni clerics.
Los Angeles Times
