ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Āl al-Sheikh

ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbdallāh Āl al-Sheikh ( Arabic عبد العزيز بن عبد الله آل الشيخ, DMG ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbdallāh Āl aš-Šayḫ ; * February 10, 1943 in Riyadh ) is a Saudi Arabian mufti . He is Deputy Minister of Justice and President of the Religious Police in Saudi Arabia, based in Riyadh.

Education and career

At the age of 12 he attained the status of Hafiz , i.e. H. he learned the whole Koran by heart. He also learned the Sahih Hadith from the Al-Kutub as-sitta , the six hadith books of Sunni Islam, by heart . In 1961 he went blind . He finished his studies in Mecca in 1963 . He has been performing the functions of an imam and a chatib , and later also an alim , since 1970. From 1971 to 1991 he taught at the Sharia faculty in Riyadh (since 1974 Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University ). He has been a member of the High Council of the Ulama in Saudi Arabia since 1986 and has been a member of the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs there since 1991 . In 1995 he was appointed deputy to Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz and succeeded him in 1999.

He is a descendant of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and comes from the Al-Sheikh family , traditionally the religious authorities of the Saudi kingdom.

Since 1993 he has been answering caller questions on the radio show Noorun 'alad-Darb . The mufti appears on television at the religious broadcaster Al Majd TV, founded in 2003 .

In early 2009, the former President of the Religious Police, Ibrahim bin Abdullah Al-Ghait, was replaced by Deputy Justice Minister Abd al-Aziz bin Abdullah Al-Sheikh on the orders of King Abdullah . This is considered to be more moderate and more open to reform.

Positions

In a fatwa in 2000, he banned Barbie dolls in Saudi Arabia , as they represented incitement to the veil, and at the same time banned Pokémon playing cards as they would encourage gambling. He also recommended all Muslims worldwide not to participate in April Fools ' jokes, as this is a sin, as Muslims should not lie for fun.

In a fatwa from March 2004, the Grand Mufti called for a complete legal ban on the coexistence of men and women outside the family. He was referring to a conference held by Saudi economic experts in the Jeddah Business Club , at which women and men sometimes participated together in the same room. In the fatwa he stated:

“Unveiled women open the door to evil and evil. [...] It pains me that such shameless behavior happened in Saudi Arabia of all places, the land of the Two Holy Mosques, whose leaders have always obeyed Sharia law without fear of criticism from the unbelievers. "

Since this incident he has been described by local, western-oriented media as an opponent of women's emancipation in Saudi Arabia , and he has often referred to women's work outside the home as “fateful soil”.

During the Hajj in 2004, the Mufti called for the "merciless suppression" of the terror committed in the name of Islam. Islam forbids all kinds of violence in all its forms, it forbids the hijacking of planes, ships and other means of transport, and it forbids all acts that undermine the security of society.

In a fatwa in April 2005, he declared forced marriage forbidden and called for stricter control and punishment by the judiciary because the forced marriage was against Islam and, according to a hadith, the Prophet Muhammad had a forced marriage annulled.

In 2006 he described the Pope quote from Regensburg as lies that showed that a reconciliation of religions was impossible.

In March 2008 he publicly campaigned for more judicial posts to be given to women; anyone who is sufficiently qualified can work in the judiciary; Discrimination against women is not in the interests of society and violates the laws of Islam. He also announced that he wanted to set up legal advice centers specifically for women. You have to find a way how women can reach judges without coming into contact with men.

In a fatwa in March 2012, the Supreme Mufti called for the construction of new churches on the Arabian Peninsula to be banned and for existing churches to be destroyed in response to a request from Kuwaiti parliamentarians on the legality of a Kuwaiti law that would prohibit the construction of new churches in Kuwait. He is referring to a hadith that strictly rejects the parallel existence of several religions on the Arabian Peninsula.

In January 2012, King Abdullah announced a "moderate" pace of the religious police in Saudi Arabia as part of the reforms that had been started. In this context, Abd al-Aziz bin Abdullah Al-Sheikh forbade the use of volunteers on duty. In April 2012, he issued an order prohibiting religious officers from harassing citizens. At the same time, resolute measures against intrusive and violent religious police officers were announced. The task of the religious police is only to point out offenses. He advised women to report intrusive religious policemen to the regular police . Only this has the authority to take legal action against citizens.

In another fatwa, Abd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbdallāh Āl al-Sheikh declared the game of chess un-Islamic in 2015 and forbade it.

He derives from the Koran sura in an-Nisā ' , Sura 4:34 , that women must be placed under total control. He considers everything else to be a “crime against Islam”.

In two short sentences on September 5, 2016, the Grand Mufti declared around 80 million Shiite Muslims to be unbelievers - namely those Muslims who live in Iran. "We have to understand that they are not Muslims," ​​said the clergyman of the daily Mekka , which appears in the city of the same name. "Your hostility towards the Muslims is old, especially towards the Sunnis."

Āl al-Sheikh referred to the Iranians literally as "sons of magicians", that is, as followers of Zoroastrianism . With such a saying, vilified as takfir in Islam, his followers are now theoretically allowed to kill Shiites who have been declared unbelievers with impunity. They are considered outlawed .

In November 2017, the Grand Mufti stated in a TV interview that the fight against Israel was inappropriate and he described Hamas as a "terrorist organization". This statement is considered a fatwa and welcomed by Israel as a gesture of rapprochement.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fatwa-online: Biography ( Memento of February 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ `` Abdul-`Aziz ibn `Abdullah ibn Muhammad Al-Shaykh ( Memento of August 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Member Scholars of the Permanent Committee for Ifta '
3. ^ Nawaf E. Obaid: The Power of Saudi Arabia's Islamic Leaders . In: Middle East Quarterly , VI (3), September 1999, pp. 51-58.
4. ↑ BBC: Major reshuffle in Saudi Arabia
5. ↑ Saudi Mufti Calls for Crushing Terror, Exhorts Women to Modesty . Financial Times, January 31, 2004
6. ^ Women in Saudi Arabia - Grand Mufti Pronounces End of Forced Marriages . qantara.de April 21, 2005
7. ↑ cwis.usc.edu ( Memento from October 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
8. ↑ "Ugly, unhappy statements": Erdogan demands apology from the Pope ( memento of February 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), Netzeitung , September 17, 2006
9. ^ Women to Work in Saudi Courts: Justice Minister. Arabnews, March 31, 2008; Retrieved April 1, 2008.
10. ↑ Fatwa on the destruction of all churches . Badische Zeitung, March 27, 2012; Retrieved March 27, 2012
11. ↑ Commentary on the fatwa: Arabic انتقاد مفتي السعودية لفتواه بهدم الكنائس(German: criticism of the Mufti of Saudi Arabia for his fatwa on the destruction of churches ); aljazeera.net.Retrieved March 27, 2012
12. ^ Destroy all churches in Gulf, says Saudi Grand Mufti . arabianbusiness.com; Retrieved March 28, 2012
13. ^ Saudi Arabia religious police chief announces new curbs .
14. ↑ Saudi Arabia Crawls Forward: Women Can Now Serve On Religious Police Force Saudi Arabia religious police chief announces new curbs .
15. ↑ Fatwa: Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti forbids chess . Spiegel Online , January 22, 2016
16. ↑ You mess with the king . Basler Zeitung , September 27, 2016.
17. ↑ Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti declares Iranians to be infidels . Spiegel Online , September 8, 2016.
18. ↑ dailysabah.com