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Saudi Arabia promises a return to 'moderate Islam'

R

realibrad

Lifer
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has promised a return to "a more moderate Islam," as the Kingdom continues to push ahead with sweeping cultural and economic reforms.

Speaking at Riyadh's Future Investment Initiative conference on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's crown prince said he would be prepared to "destroy" extremist ideologies in order to put the country in unison with other nations around the world.

"In all honesty, we will not spend 30 years of our lives dealing with extremist ideologies. We will destroy them today and immediately," he said.


"Saudi was not like this before 1979. Saudi Arabia and the entire region went through a revival after 1979 … All we are doing is going back to what we were: a moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world and to all traditions and people," he said.
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https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/25/saudi-arabia-promises-a-return-to-moderate-islam.html

I wonder where this is coming from. SA for a long time has stirred the extremist pot and suddenly we get women driving and a Prince that wants to promote moderate Islam.
 
realibrad said:
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/25/saudi-arabia-promises-a-return-to-moderate-islam.html

I wonder where this is coming from. SA for a long time has stirred the extremist pot and suddenly we get women driving and a Prince that wants to promote moderate Islam.
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Hard to say. Could be that a soft stance on extremism was affecting the country economically; could be that they simply saw the effect of extremist Islam and decided they needed to do more to stop it. And of course, it could be a combination of both.

I'm not wholly convinced this is coming from some fundamental change of heart, but either way, it's good news. It's fine to have a country where Islam is the majority religion; just let people of other religions (or no religion) live their lives without hassle.
 
Commodus said:
Hard to say. Could be that a soft stance on extremism was affecting the country economically; could be that they simply saw the effect of extremist Islam and decided they needed to do more to stop it. And of course, it could be a combination of both.

I'm not wholly convinced this is coming from some fundamental change of heart, but either way, it's good news. It's fine to have a country where Islam is the majority religion; just let people of other religions (or no religion) live their lives without hassle.
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I'm not sure I understand what is going on, but there seems to be changes. Letting women drive is a pretty big shift in the right direction. Not only are they able to drive, but they don't need a man to be with them either.

I don't doubt that there might be other things going on, but at least it seems good.
 
The Saudis see the end of oil and I believe are trying to transform their country to still be successful when that happens. One just needs to look around to figure out that being a hotbed of religious extremism probably won't work well when you have to compete with the rest of the world.
 
Regardless of motive, I think we can all agree this is a move in the right direction. This kind of change will never be instant and will likely be full of turmoil...but it is good to see progress.
 
The House of Saud has been the biggest supporter of Wahhabist nutjobbery since 1805, exporting extremist ideology all over the world. I suspect the prince is simply lying or has a vision of moderate Islam that has nothing in common with moderate Islam.
 
According to the rules, Saudi Arabia will now see an uptick in terror attacks and that Prince is going to end up marginalized.
 
IronWing said:
Will the Sauds be funding these attacks like they pay for those in other countries?
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It's not like they are cutting government checks.
Its more like Tithing in the U.S.
Government doesn't fund crazy churches. However, your senator goes to church every Sunday and they just so happen to put big fat wads on the plate.
 
pauldun170 said:
It's not like they are cutting government checks.
Its more like Tithing in the U.S.
Government doesn't fund crazy churches. However, your senator goes to church every Sunday and they just so happen to put big fat wads on the plate.
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So if an employee gives money to a church, then the company that pays the employee is donating money?
 
realibrad said:
So if an employee gives money to a church, then the company that pays the employee is donating money?
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Not a reasonable analogy to the House of Saud. The family is the government. In a despotic monarchy it is reasonable to assume that the actions of the government and the ruling family reflect the will of the monarch.
 
IronWing said:
Not a reasonable analogy to the House of Saud. The family is the government. In a despotic monarchy it is reasonable to assume that the actions of the government and the ruling family reflect the will of the monarch.
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But he was talking about how its done in the US.
 
Holy smokes, the fact that this was said in SA by the crowned prince is just amazing
Saudi was not like this before 1979. Saudi Arabia and the entire region went through a revival after 1979 … All we are doing is going back to what we were: a moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world and to all traditions and people," he said.
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Is Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti losing influence?
 
IronWing said:
The House of Saud has been the biggest supporter of Wahhabist nutjobbery since 1805, exporting extremist ideology all over the world. I suspect the prince is simply lying or has a vision of moderate Islam that has nothing in common with moderate Islam.
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Agreed
 
Ajay said:
Holy smokes, the fact that this was said in SA by the crowned prince is just amazing

Is Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti losing influence?
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Maybe. The proof will be in the pudding, of course, but I can't help but wonder if this is a sort of pining for that 'golden era' of modern Islamic countries in the '60s and '70s, where women were relatively free and cities were cultural centers for more than just devout Muslims. Hopefully minus the propped-up governments with authoritarian streaks.
 
Commodus said:
Maybe. The proof will be in the pudding, of course, but I can't help but wonder if this is a sort of pining for that 'golden era' of modern Islamic countries in the '60s and '70s, where women were relatively free and cities were cultural centers for more than just devout Muslims. Hopefully minus the propped-up governments with authoritarian streaks.
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I don't follow the house of Saud close enough to know what's really going on, but allot of the gov't funding of religious (wahabist) churches was direct appeasement. I think with the NATO war on terror, the Saudi's and the Muslim authorities may see that there is no longer a point to this and that they need to back off (the writing's been on the wall for a while). And, yes please, to no more authoritarian nut jobs - what a fuck up that was.
 
UglyCasanova said:
I’ll believe it when I see it. We made a deal with the devil being in bed with the Saudis; that precious oil though..
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Precious, yes, but they have got to start turning the ship (economically and politically) now if they want a future with the west. So I hope these first tentative steps don't cause a backlash against the house of Saud, that could create a new era of appeasement and more deplorable conditions.
 
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Ajay said:
Holy smokes, the fact that this was said in SA by the crowned prince is just amazing

Is Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti losing influence?
Click to expand...
I suspect the Royal Family has finally figured out that all the terrorists they fund still want them deposed in favor of a fundamentalist ISlamic theocracy. Regardless, as PricklyPete says this is good news no matter what the true motivation.
 
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