Saudi fatwas condemned
The week's news at a glance.
Tehran
A group of extremist Saudi muftis this week issued fatwas calling for the destruction of the most important Shiite shrines and mosques in Iraq. Ayatollahs in Iran, a largely Shiite country, were outraged, and the Iranian government made a formal complaint to the Saudis. The fatwas could cause a “schism in the Islamic world,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini. Iranian newspaper commentators said the muftis were playing into the hands of “the arrogant powers”—the U.S. and E.U.—by sowing discord among Muslims. The hard-line Iranian newspaper Jomhuri-ye Eslami even called for the Saudi government to “excise the malignant tumor of Wahhabism” from Saudi society. The Saudi muftis who gave the fatwas belong to the Wahhabi branch of Sunni Islam.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imagination
Feature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
-
Google: A monopoly past its prime?
Feature Google’s antitrust case ends with a slap on the wrist as courts struggle to keep up with the tech industry’s rapid changes
-
Patrick Hemingway: The Hemingway son who tended to his father’s legacy
Feature He was comfortable in the shadow of his famous father, Ernest Hemingway