In an effort to contain the controversy between senior scholars in Saudi Arabia, an imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca has labelled the media irresponsible for publishing the mistakes of senior scholars and publishing opinions of scholars he considers “short of knowledge”.
Sheikh Saleh al Talib warned in his sermon on Friday that Islamic teachings become distorted as they are accessible to any person regardless of his knowledge of Islamic affairs. He added that the media is helping in this by interviewing scholars who are “talib elm”, a rank that does not allow them to make their opinions public.
Mr al Talib was referring to Sheikh Ahmad al Ghamdi, a senior member of Saudi Arabia’s religious police, and criticised him for liberal statements he has made recently. Mr al Ghamdi had riled conservatives in April by approving of gender mixing and allowing shops to stay open during prayers, practices that are banned by the religious police and rejected by Saudi scholars. Mr al Ghamdi has become somewhat of a spokesman for Saudi progressives, including much of the mainstream media, which have been increasingly vocal in criticising the religious police.
Another controversy among the senior scholars were statements made by Sheikh Abdulmohsen al Obaikan, a member of the kingdom’s consultative body, the Shura Council, and a consultant to the royal court. Al Watan published a story on May 26 saying he permitted mature women to breastfeed unrelated men in order for them to be able to mix freely and lawfully. Mr al Obaikan told the paper that he had been misunderstood when he first discussed the issue on a television show.
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