From CDHR
February 21, 2008
Moving Toward a Segregated Society
By Ali Alyami
The highest religious authority in Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, the Saudi Mufti, is one of the most opponent personalities of women’s rights, equality and integration into the male dominated Saudi society. Like his ally and protector, the Saudi royal family, with the exception of Prince Talal, the powerful Mufti is dedicated to keeping the Saudi society divided, powerless, fearful and oppressed for as long as he can get away with it. Like all feudal men, the Mufti uses religion to control and crush people’s hopes and aspirations of self-reliance and the desire to explore their potential in creating an educated, tolerant, united and forward looking society. The Mufti does work for and is empowered by the Saudi ruling princes, so he too is the victim of a system that needs transformation, from top to bottom. Religious extremism is not only a threat to the Saudi people and their stability, but to international peace, security and the world’s economic stability. Saudi and other Muslim women are the primary victims of the application of the Wahhabi interpretation and implementation of radical Islam.