Saudi Cleric Issues Death Fatwa Against Opponents Of Gender Segregation

I don't think there's much hope for Saudi Arabia. It seems the country takes one step forward into the 21st century, and then some whacked-out cleric wants to take it 500 steps back into the dark ages.

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This time it's prominent cleric Shaikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak who wants to make sure there is never any mixing of the genders either at work or in schools, so he has just issued a death fatwa for all those contemplating ridding the Kingdom of gender segregation. Yes, he actually believes they should be put to death for trying to modernise one of the most religiously primitive countries in the world.

In his warped little, 77-year-old geriatric mind (a mindset shared, sadly, by many) gender interaction

is prohibited because it allows "sight of what is forbidden, and forbidden talk between men and women."

" Whoever allows this mixing ... allows forbidden things, and whoever allows them is an infidel and this means defection from Islam ... Either he retracts or he must be killed ... because he disavows and does not observe the Shariah "

Shaikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak "All of this leads to whatever ensues," he said in the text of the fatwa published on his website(albarrak.islamlight.net).

Sight of what is forbidden? How can you even tell what is underneath those black ninja-like outfits women are forced to wear in Saudi. If a man can lust after swaths of black cloth, then there is something desperately wrong with him. Merely 'talking' to a man does not lead to 'whatever ensues'. One can only assume he means sexual relations.

King Abdullah is apparently trying to push through various reforms, but is often thwarted by the Wahabbi clerics who control the land with a religious iron fist.

Western diplomats believe that King Abdullah's push for reforms is resisted by a mainly older generation of clerics who still control the religious establishment.

The monarch dismissed a cleric from a top council of religious scholars in October after he demanded that religious scholars vet the curriculum at a new flagship mixed-gender university.

I suppose King Abdullah could either wait for them all to die off, which could feasibly take another 15 to 20 years, or he could start by firing all the clerics. It's about time Saudi Arabia drags itself out of the 7th century. In the meantime, the clerics will continue to have fun issuing fatwa after ridiculous fatwa.