Arab human rights activists have condemned a Saudi religious edict
calling for the execution of two writers for apostasy - giving a rare
glimpse of tensions over Islam inside the conservative kingdom.
The
ruling by Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Barrak was called "intellectual
terrorism" by "clerics of darkness" in a statement obtained by Reuters
and signed by 100 human rights groups and intellectuals from the
region. Last month Barrak issued a fatwa against two Saudi writers he
denounced as "infidels".
Writing in al-Riyadh newspaper, Yousef
Aba Al-Khail and Abdullah bin Bejad had questioned the Sunni Muslim
view standard in Saudi Arabia that adherents of other faiths should be
considered unbelievers.
"Anyone who claims this has refuted
Islam and should be tried so that he can take it back. If not, he
should be killed as an apostate from the religion of Islam," Barrak
said. "It is disgraceful that articles [of] this kind of apostasy
should be published in ... the land of [Mecca and Medina]."
Barrak
is seen as Saudi Arabia's leading religious authority independent of
the establishment Wahhabi school. His call won support from clerics who
asked God to support him in the face of liberals with "polluted
beliefs".
Fatwas by radical Muslim clerics led to the
assassination in 1992 of the Egyptian writer Farag Foda and to an
attempt in 1994 in Cairo to murder the Egyptian Nobel prize-winner
Naguib Mahfouz.
Last month Saudi Arabia's Shura council threw out
a proposal for a law promoting respect for other religions and
religious symbols, apparently for fear it might lead to the building of
churches.
King Abdullah recently called for the first time for a
dialogue among Muslims, Christians and Jews after discussing the idea
with Pope Benedict XVI. But it was reported yesterday that the
kingdom's leading official cleric, the Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Bin
Abdullah al-Sheikh, had denied issuing an invitation to Israeli rabbis
to take part in a conference.
A YouGov poll, broadcast by BBC
World, showed that nearly a third of Arabs believe Saudi Arabia is at
greater risk from religious extremism than any other country.
"Deaths in the Bible. God - 2,270,365
not including the victims of Noah's flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, or the
many plagues, famines, fiery serpents, etc because no specific numbers
were given. Satan - 10."
Arab human rights activists have condemned a Saudi religious edict
calling for the execution of two writers for apostasy - giving a rare
glimpse of tensions over Islam inside the conservative kingdom.
The
ruling by Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Barrak was called "intellectual
terrorism" by "clerics of darkness" in a statement obtained by Reuters
and signed by 100 human rights groups and intellectuals from the
region. Last month Barrak issued a fatwa against two Saudi writers he
denounced as "infidels".
Writing in al-Riyadh newspaper, Yousef
Aba Al-Khail and Abdullah bin Bejad had questioned the Sunni Muslim
view standard in Saudi Arabia that adherents of other faiths should be
considered unbelievers.
"Anyone who claims this has refuted
Islam and should be tried so that he can take it back. If not, he
should be killed as an apostate from the religion of Islam," Barrak
said. "It is disgraceful that articles [of] this kind of apostasy
should be published in ... the land of [Mecca and Medina]."
Barrak
is seen as Saudi Arabia's leading religious authority independent of
the establishment Wahhabi school. His call won support from clerics who
asked God to support him in the face of liberals with "polluted
beliefs".
Fatwas by radical Muslim clerics led to the
assassination in 1992 of the Egyptian writer Farag Foda and to an
attempt in 1994 in Cairo to murder the Egyptian Nobel prize-winner
Naguib Mahfouz.
Last month Saudi Arabia's Shura council threw out
a proposal for a law promoting respect for other religions and
religious symbols, apparently for fear it might lead to the building of
churches.
King Abdullah recently called for the first time for a
dialogue among Muslims, Christians and Jews after discussing the idea
with Pope Benedict XVI. But it was reported yesterday that the
kingdom's leading official cleric, the Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Bin
Abdullah al-Sheikh, had denied issuing an invitation to Israeli rabbis
to take part in a conference.
A YouGov poll, broadcast by BBC
World, showed that nearly a third of Arabs believe Saudi Arabia is at
greater risk from religious extremism than any other country.
"Deaths in the Bible. God - 2,270,365
not including the victims of Noah's flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, or the
many plagues, famines, fiery serpents, etc because no specific numbers
were given. Satan - 10."