Saudi Arabia has reportedly ‘detained’ a prominent imam and preacher at the Grand Mosque in Makkah Sheikh Saleh al-Talib after he delivered a sermon criticising mixed gatherings.
The social media advocacy group Prisoners of Conscience, which monitors arrests and detentions of Saudi preachers and religious scholars in a tweet ‘confirmed’ that the imam was arrested over a sermon which emphasised on Islamic duty to speak against evil in public.
🔴 We confirm the arrest of the Imam of Haram Sheikh Dr. Saleh al Taleb, and it is said that the reason for the arrest is a speech about the doing evil and the duty in Islam to deny that in public! pic.twitter.com/8jq70ljDGg
— Prisoners of Conscience (@m3takl_en) August 19, 2018
The preacher, who also serves as a judge in Makkah, had condemned mixing of unrelated men and women in concerts and other entertainment activities.
Although their was no direct criticism of the Saudi royal family, the condemnatory remarks might have come in response to the family’s relaxation of laws for women to attend public gatherings.
Since Mohammed bin Salman became the Saudi crown prince in June 2017, dozens of imams, women’s rights activists and members of the ruling royal family have been detained, Al Jazeera said in its report.
Among those arrested are prominent Islamic preachers Salman al-Awdah, Awad al-Qarni, Farhan al-Malki, Mostafa Hassan and Safar al-Hawali.