Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has delivered his sharpest attack yet on the kingdom’s Wahhabi religious establishment, declaring its ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam out of date and often based on a faulty interpretation of Islamic scriptures. Speaking on national television in the midst of the holy month of Ramadan, he also defended his promotion of secular Western entertainment in the kingdom which had long been condemned as heretical by its once powerful Wahhabi clerics.
He has openly set about sidelining the kingdom’s Wahhabi scholars and preachers who still command millions of followers in the country and beyond.
Of all his domestic reforms, none has been more consequential than his silencing of clerics and his promotion of a new version of the kingdom’s reigning Wahhabi creed often viewed abroad as a chief source of Islamist extremism. His attempt to reform the religious establishment is particularly risky as the crown prince has no official standing as a religious scholar. He has openly set about sidelining the kingdom’s Wahhabi scholars and preachers who still command millions of followers in the country and beyond. In addition, the legitimacy of the ruling House of Saud has been based for nearly 275 years on its alliance with the Wahhabi clergy
. That alliance is now very much in question.