Saudi Arabia appoints Sheikh Saleh bin Fawzan al-Fawzan as kingdom's new grand mufti

DUBAI (AP) – Saudi Arabia appointed a prominent scholar late Wednesday as the country’s new grand mufti, the kingdom’s top religious scholar.

Sheikh Saleh bin Fawzan al-Fawzan, 90, took over the position, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported. The decision came from King Salman, based on the recommendation of his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the report added.

Sheikh Saleh, reportedly born Sept. 28, 1935, in Saudi Arabia’s al-Qassim province, studied the Quran with a local imam after his father’s death. He became a prominent scholar, speaking to the faithful via the “Noor ala al-Darb,” or “Light the Way,” radio show and via multiple books he’s authored and his television appearances. His fatwas, or religious orders, have been shared via social media as well.

Sheikh Saleh has faced criticism in Western media in the past for some of his pronouncements.

Sheikh Saleh takes the post after the September death of Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, who held the position of grand mufti for a quarter century.

The al-Sheikh family, descendants of Sheikh Mohammed Ibn Abdul-Wahhab, long had seen its members serve as the grand mufti. Sheikh Mohammed’s ultraconservative teachings of Islam in the 18th century, widely referred to as “Wahhabism” in his name, had guided the kingdom for decades, particularly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran saw the kingdom grow even more conservative.

The grand mufti is one of the top Islamic clerics in the world of Sunni Muslims. Saudi Arabia, home to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah, hosts the annual Hajj pilgrimage required of all able-bodied Muslims once in their lives, making the pronouncements of the grand mufti that much more closely followed.

Saudi Arabia has socially liberalised under King Salman, allowing women to drive and opening movie theaters as the country tries to move its economy away from being dominated by its oil industry.