Saudi Crown Prince pledges to restore ‘moderate Islam’

A political map of the Middle East by Central Intelligence Agency/Wikimedia Commons

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has pledged to restore “moderate Islam” in his deeply conservative kingdom, while acknowledging the negative fallout of the rigid views that dictated official policies in the last few decades.

The heir to the Saudi Arabian throne told the Guardian newspaper in an interview that now is the time to get rid of the misplaced policies that his country adopted in reaction to 1979 Iranian revolution. He termed the state of affairs over the past few decades as “not normal.”

“What happened in the last 30 years is not Saudi Arabia. What happened in the region in the last 30 years is not the Middle East. After the Iranian revolution in 1979, people wanted to copy this model in different countries, one of them is Saudi Arabia. We didn’t know how to deal with it. And the problem spread all over the world. Now is the time to get rid of it.”

While the United States and European powers have had close security and political ties with Riyadh, human rights advocates have long criticized Saudi Arabia’s record including denial of basic rights to women and political rights to citizens.

In the context of the unprecedented new reform efforts, the newspaper also cited Prince Mohammed’s comments made earlier when he had said: “We are simply reverting to what we followed – a moderate Islam open to the world and all religions. 70% of the Saudis are younger than 30, honestly we won’t waste 30 years of our life combating extremist thoughts, we will destroy them now and immediately.”

In the economic area, the crown prince has already announced the launch of an ambitious $500 bn  independent economic zone spanning regions of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt.

The 15-year-old reform program proposed by the crown prince seek to sideline hard line clerics by severing defining links between the clerics and the ruling House of Saud.

The reforms will also aim at bringing socio-economic improvement in the lives of people with some of the steps including lifting a ban on women driving and relaxing guardianship laws having been already introduced. Besides, an Islamic center will also certify the sayings of Prophet Muhammed, Peace Be Upon Him.