Mick Hartley

If you’re a top Saudi cleric there’s a special method of argumentation that you can use:

Saudi Arabia’s most revered cleric said in a rare fatwa this week that two writers should be tried for apostasy for their “heretical articles” and put to death if they do not repent.

Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak was responding to recent articles in al-Riyadh newspaper that questioned the Sunni Muslim view in Saudi Arabia that adherents of other faiths should be considered unbelievers.

“Anyone who claims this has refuted Islam [if only it were that easy] and should be tried in order to take it back. If not, he should be killed as an apostate from the religion of Islam,” said the fatwa, or religious opinion, dated March 14 and published on Barrak’s Web site.

“It is disgraceful that articles containing this kind of apostasy should be published in some papers of Saudi Arabia, the land of the two holy shrines,” he said, referring to Muslim holy places in Mecca and Medina.

“The rulers should hold these papers to account … and all those who took part in the publication should know they were involved in the sin of heretical articles.”

Barrak, who is thought to be around 75, is viewed by Islamists as the leading independent authority of Saudi Arabia’s hardline version of Sunni Islam, often termed Wahhabism.

He said the articles suggested Muslims were free to follow other religions.

Other pronouncements from Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak include this:

“It is not permissible for a Muslim woman to marry a kafir (non-Muslim), whether he is Jewish, Christian or an atheist because the man has authority over his wife, and it is not permissible for a kafir to have authority over a Muslim woman. There are decisive texts from the Qur’an which refer to the prohibition of such marriage. For example, Allah Almighty says, “And give not (your daughters) in marriage to Al Mushrikun (atheists) till they believe (in Allah Alone)” (Al-Baqarah: 221). And “And never will Allah grant to the disbelievers a way (to triumph) over the believers” (An-Nisaa’: 141).”

He has also, more controversially, condemned camel beauty contests.