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| Arabia |
| Saudi cleric was sacked over co-ed university spat |
| 2009-10-06 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah removed a top cleric in the wake of controversy over his statements opposing gender mixing at the first co-ed university in the Kingdom, the state news agency SPA said on Sunday. Sheikh Saad bin Nasser al-Shithri was first reported to have resigned from the board of the Council of Senior Clerics. His resignation from the senior ulema came just days after he appeared on the Qatar-based al-Majd satellite channel and lashed out at the newly-opened flagship King Abdullah Science and Technology University for offering co-education. Shithri was one of several clerics who objected to the mixed gender university, which is outside the purview of the conservative cleric-dominated education ministry. Saudi king Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, who has promoted reforms since taking office in 2005, accepted Shithri's resignation. The senior cleric said religious scholars should vet the curriculum to prevent alien ideologies such as "evolution" and set up a committee to ensure it does not violate sharia, or Islamic law. "We are looking at some of the sciences that have included some irregular and alien ideologies, like evolution and such other ideologies," the daily al-Watan newspaper quoted Shithri as saying last week in response to a viewer's question. He later withdraw his statements and stressed the importance of the university in the progress of education. He also accused journalists of taking his statements out of context. Al-Majd TV sought to distance itself from the channel, saying it is not responsible for Shithri's statements. Executive director Ahmed Saqr stressed that the comments reflected the sheikh's personal opinion. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Sounds like they're about ripe for a Scopes monkey trial. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-10-06 12:23 |