Saudi Clerics’ Outbursts Hurt Image of Islam
THE NATIONAL - RIYADH: When the head of Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court recently declared that media officials responsible for airing immoral television programmes could be killed, his remarks provoked what has become a familiar response around the world.



Ridicule and scorn for Saudi Arabia, and more “proof” for Islamophobes of the “backwardness” of Islam. 



Sheikh Lihedan’s remarks were not the only ones in recent months to trigger a spate of global eye-rolling. 



In March, Sheikh Abdul Rahman al Barrak declared that two Saudi writers, whom he accused of expressing heretical ideas, should be put to death unless they recanted.
Another elderly sheikh, Abdullah bin Jibreen, told an interviewer on Al Majd TV, a conservative Riyadh-based religious station, that journalists “who insult scholars to shame or discredit them or undermine their authority … should be punished”. 
Sheikh Jibreen’s suggested chastisements included “imprisonment for a long time”, being “removed from the positions they hold, or … flogging”.



There were other less frightening, but sometimes silly, pronouncements that caused non-Muslims to wonder why representatives of such a profound and spiritual religious tradition as Islam concern themselves with trivialities. 



The most famous was a declaration by a member of the Saudi religious police, officially known as the Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice, that dog-walking had become an unacceptable “phenomenon” in Riyadh. He demanded enforcement of 14-year-old ban on selling cats and dogs. 



Then came a Saudi cleric bemoaning the fact that young children have become enamoured of such cartoon figures as Mickey Mouse even though Islamic law stipulates that mice should be killed.



Sheikh Mohammed al Munajid told Al Majd TV last month that sharia regards a mouse as “one of Satan’s soldiers”. Saudi Clerics’ Outbursts Hurt Image of Islam >>> By Caryle Murphy | September 25, 2008

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£16m to Spread Islam
Photo of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Abdulaziz al-Saud courtesu of Google Images
THE INDEPENDENT: Two of the country's best known universities are to set up research centres aimed at promoting a better understanding of Islam.

Cambridge and Edinburgh universities will share a £16m endowment from Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Abdulaziz al-Saud, a member of the Saudi Arabian royal family and chairman of the Kingdom Foundation – a charitable and philanthropic foundation set up to alleviate suffering around the world.

Both universities, members of the 20-strong Russell Group, which represents the leading research institutions, will set up study centres with the aim of fostering better understanding between the Muslim world and the West.

In Cambridge, the HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies will seek to develop a "constructive and critical awareness of the role of Islam in wider society". There will be research programmes on Islam in the UK and Europe and the portrayal of Islam in the media. Public lectures, conferences and summer schools will be organised to promote better understanding, with policy makers from both worlds invited to become visiting fellows at the centre.

At Edinburgh, the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for the Study of Islam in the Modern World will aim to concentrate on promoting understanding of the history of Islamic civilisation and of Muslims in Britain.

Professor Carole Hillenbrand, head of the department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at Edinburgh, said the centre's programme would have "twin emphases on both the past and the present and how they reinforce and illuminate each other". Saudi Prince Gives Universities £16m for Study of Islam >>> By Richard Garner | May 8, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)