Saudi Arabia creates global body of religious scholars to fight extremism

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud.
(Image credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images)

King Salman of Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, announced Wednesday the formation of a religious authority of Islamic scholars from around the world that would vet the use of "hadiths" — the accounts of the life, doings, and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad.

Hadiths are used by preachers, scholars, and Islamic jurists to teach different interpretations of Islam. Terrorist groups like the Islamic State, al Qaeda, and the Taliban have all used different hadiths to justify their own ideologies and actions, as there are thousands of versions. Saudi Arabia's Culture and Information Ministry said Wednesday that the establishment of this religious authority would "eliminate fake and extremist texts and any texts that contradict the teachings of Islam and justify the committing of crimes, murders, and terrorist acts."

Saudi Arabia has long subsidized the international exportation of madrassas, or Islamic religious schools, that teach Wahhabism, a rigid and puritanical Sunni interpretation of Islam. In a leaked email from 2009, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton referred to Saudi donors as "the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide." In September, Saudi authorities arrested more than 20 clerics and intellectuals for their connections to "external entities, including the Muslim Brotherhood."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

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.

Sign up

It is estimated that approximately 10 to 15 percent of Saudi Arabia's population practices Shia Islam, a branch of the religion that expressly contradicts many of the beliefs of Sunni Islam. Shiites in Saudi Arabia have long been targets of harassment and discrimination; in August, Saudi Arabia drew fierce criticism from the U.S. and Europe when it executed 14 Shiites who had been arrested for demonstrating in 2011 and 2012.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Kelly O'Meara Morales

Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.