Al-Luhaidan’s departure: a complete break with extremism in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia needed time to get rid of the influence of the clerics who were in the picture as the official representatives of the state.

Contemporary Saudi

Followers of the Saudi affairs considered that the departure of Sheikh Saleh Al-Luhaidan, a member of the Council of Senior Scholars, indicates a complete Saudi break with a Salafist stage in which extremists dominated and controlled the Kingdom's positions and promoted a bad image.

Al-Luhaidan was one of those with hard-line positions whom the Saudi authorities chose not to confront in spite of their positions, which were embarrassing for them both internally and externally. But things have changed in recent years after the kingdom has made great strides towards fixing the option of major reforms, including reforms related to the religious field.

Al-Luhaidan's hard-line views prompted his dismissal in 2009 from the position of head of the Saudi Supreme Judicial Council after he made headlines in international newspapers after he made statements that were considered a waste of blood for officials of satellite channels that broadcast series and entertainment programs, especially during the month of Ramadan.

The goal of accustoming the Saudis to a new life that combines work, religion and entertainment, is to formulate a new culture that accepts life, and this completely contradicts the image reflected by the hardliners.

Al-Luhaidan said in an interview with a local radio station, “Whoever calls for sedition, if he is able to prevent it and does not refrain, may kill him, because those who advocate corruption in belief or work, if their evil is not prompted by punishments without killing, may be killed.”

He did not hide his opposition to the cautious reforms announced by the late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz in the context of improving the conditions of women and opening the door for them to participate in political life through voting and running for municipal council elections and appointment to the Shura Council.

And when King Abdullah said at the time that his decision was taken after consulting senior scholars, Al-Luhaidan appeared to say that he had not been consulted in the matter, which was considered a challenge to the will of the King and an embarrassment to him in front of the Saudis, which showed the extent of the influence that the Salafi sheikhs wielded in the country, especially since they were in control of various Religious platforms.

An audio recording in which Sheikh al-Luhaidan was encouraging young Saudis to go to Iraq to wage war against the Americans in 2006 caused great embarrassment to the Saudi authorities at a time when dozens of militants were flocking to Iraq to join Al-Qaeda under the influence of various fatwas of jihad.

Observers say that Saudi Arabia took a long time to get rid of the influence of the hardliners, especially the senior clerics who were appearing in the picture as official representatives of the state, while their positions contradict Saudi interests and its foreign commitments, and their influence represented a cover for the spread of other extremist currents such as the Surururi Movement (or Sururiyah). .

The hardliners took refuge in the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which was a ministry of the interior that chased after people and limited their private and public freedoms under the umbrella of ready-made fatwas that prohibited all forms of entertainment. But it was dismantled by the new project of a contemporary Saudi Arabia.

These hardliners called for women not to be allowed to hold public jobs, drive a car, play sports or travel without a male guardian. They enforced segregation of men and women in restaurants, expelled women who wore nail polish or showed their faces from malls, and banned music.

Complete cut with strictness

Since Prince Mohammed bin Salman assumed his position as Crown Prince, the Kingdom has witnessed a series of unprecedented musical and entertainment activities, including concerts for Western bands and singers, and the reopening of cinemas. These activities coincided with steps that express an accelerating social openness, including allowing women to drive and ending gender segregation in public places.

Followers of Saudi affairs point out that the goal of diversifying demonstrations, allowing concerts and various artistic performances, and accustoming Saudis to a new life that combines work, religion and entertainment, is to formulate a new culture that accepts life, and this completely contradicts the image reflected by the militants, which led a significant number of Saudi youth to join extremist groups.

Observers consider that stopping the hand of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, known as the Mutawwa’ah, was the first step in the way of stopping the hand of social extremism under the pretext of religion, a step taken by Prince Muhammad bin Salman with the tangible support of his father, the Saudi monarch, King Salman bin Abdulaziz.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman said, “We are just going back to what we were, moderate, moderate Islam that is open to the world and to all religions and to all traditions and peoples,” adding, “We want to live a normal life, a life that translates our tolerant religion, our good customs and traditions, and this is something I think has been taken ( Within its framework) clear steps have been taken in the past period, and that we will eradicate the remnants of extremism in the very near future.”