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Saudi Arabia

Saudi Sheik Proposes Controversial "Veil For Babies" Fatwa

TAWASOL,(Saudi Arabia), AL-ARABIYA (UAE), AL MOHEET (Egypt)

Worldcrunch

RIYADH - A Saudi cleric says babies and young girls should be covered from head to toe as a way of protecting them from sexual abuse.

Sheikh Abdullah Mohamed Daoud made his statement on the al-Madj satellite station in October last year, but the video was only recently picked up by social media, reopening the debate in Saudi Arabia about the religious obligation for Muslim women to cover their heads or faces, reports Al Moheet.

Daoud justified his position by saying that hospitals report hundreds of cases of children who have been sexually molested and that the veil would protect children from such crimes.

Sheikh Mohammad al-Jzlana, a former Saudi judge and Islamic cleric told Al-Arabiya that such a fatwa could only come from a pervert. He added that people like Abdullah Daoud were denigrating to Islam and Shariah and made Muslims look bad. He also said that he felt sad he saw families walking around with a veiled baby, describing that as injustice to children.

Jzlana also urged people to ignore unregulated fatwas and explained that only Saudi authorities could rightfully administer religious edicts and appoint those who were entitled to issue them.

The Al Tawasol website, which is accredited by the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Communication, called Daoud this week to discuss the issue. The cleric defended himself by saying the buzz around the al-Madj video was an attack by liberals aiming to destroy his respectable image.

During his interview with Al Tawasol, he added that 26% of children between six and 10 in Saudi Arabia were victims of child abuse, and called for what he described as a “necessary prevention.”

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Geopolitics

Saudi Ambitions: Is MBS A New Nasser For The Middle East?

Mohammed bin Salman, aka MBS, is positioning the Saudi kingdom to be a global force of diplomacy in a way that challenges a longstanding alliance with Washington. But does the young prince have a singular vision for the interests of both his nation and the world?

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sitting with hands crossed

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on April 14, 2023

Piere Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — In the Lebanese daily L'Orient-le-Jour, which has no particular attachment to the Saudi government, Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's Crown Prince, was recently described as a man "who is taking on an importance that no Arab leader has had since Nasser."

That's right: this is the very same Mohamed bin Salman who had been considered an international pariah for ordering the sordid murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

So what has "MBS," as he calls himself, done to be compared to the greatest Arab nationalist leader of the 20th century, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who died in 1970? The Crown Prince has taken advantage of the shockwaves of the war in Ukraine to emancipate himself from any oversight, and to develop a diplomacy which, it must be admitted, is hard to keep up with.

Saudi Arabia thus embodies those mid-level powers that defy all the codes of international alliances, and do as they please – for better or for worse.

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