Saudi judge seeks to play down execution comments

The head of Saudi Arabia's highest court caused a furore by declaring that televison station owners responsible for broadcasting immoral programmes could be executed.

RIYADH // The head of Saudi Arabia's highest court, who caused a furore by declaring that televison station owners responsible for broadcasting immoral programmes could be executed, sought yesterday to play down his comments. The original remarks of Sheikh Saleh al Lihedan, chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Council, reportedly made some time ago on a radio phone-in show, were highlighted last week by the Dubai-based and Saudi-owned satellite television channel Al Arabiya. In reply to a listener's question about "bad programmes" on television, Sheikh Lihedan, 79, said: "What does the owner of these networks think when he provides seduction, obscenity and vulgarity? Those calling for corrupt beliefs, certainly it's permissible to kill them. Those calling for sedition, those who are able to prevent it but don't, it is permissible to kill them."

The sheikh's comments were seen as embarrassing for Saudi Arabia, which has been vigorously denouncing takfir, the idea promoted by extremist religious groups such as al Qa'eda that it is permissible to kill Muslims who disagree with their austere interpretations of Islam. Sheikh Lihadan's comments "will only give incentive to the misguided ones and to terrorists", said Sheikh Abdul Mohsen al Obaikan, a popular moderate religious scholar closely allied to the government.

"Such fatwas hand them a reason to exploit them on a silver platter by taking lives, attacking television stations and targeting the localities where TV owners may be." Sheikh Obaikan's rejection of Sheikh Lihedan's remarks, reported by the Saudi Al Jazeera newspaper, was especially noteworthy since he is an adviser at the justice ministry. Several Saudi newspapers put Sheikh Lihedan's comments on their front pages. And commentators voiced outrage at the elderly cleric's remarks.

"All the people in Saudi Arabia are upset," said Jamil al Diabi, editor of Al Hayat newspaper. "People want to change the image of Saudi Arabia, to be more open." Khalid al Maeena, editor of the English-language Arab News in Jeddah, said: "These types of remarks do us damage not only in the West but also in the Muslim world." In an apparent response to the criticism, Sheikh Lihedan, who is widely known for his conservative views and publicly encouraged Saudis to join Iraqis in fighting US troops in Iraq, issued a "clarification" yesterday.

He insisted that he had not meant to refer to all "immodest" television programmes, merely to those that broadcast black magic and sorcery. He did not backtrack on the suggestion that network owners could face the death penalty, but said execution could take place only after a "judicial process". Sheikh Lihedan's views on "sorcery" were, in fact, echoed by another senior Saudi cleric, who was quoted yesterday advancing a similar argument in response to queries about the original controversy.

Sheikh Saleh al Fozan, who is a member of the Higher Council of Clerics, went as far as to say that those who read horoscopes on Arab television should face the death penalty. "Sorcerers who appear on satellite channels who are proven to be sorcerers have committed a great crime ... and the Muslim consensus is that the apostate's punishment is death by the sword," Sheikh Fozan told Al Madina newspaper. "Those who call in to these shows should not be accorded Muslim rites when they die."

Ultraconservative religious leaders in Saudi periodically issue fatwas, or religious opinions, that leave outsiders mystified. For example, the head of the Riyadh branch of the Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice, also referred to as the religious police, recently denounced walking pet dogs as an un-Islamic practice. The top religious cleric in the country, Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdelaziz Al al Sheikh declared recently that Muslims should not celebrate their birthdays. And in July, the mufti told Saudis they should not watch the most popular television show to hit the airwaves this year, the Turkish-made soap opera Nour.

Sheikh al Sheikh called the show "subversive" and "anti-Islamic", adding that anyone who broadcast it was "an enemy of God and His Prophet". Increasingly, as Saudis have more exposure to the outside world through travel and satellite television, they are taking such clerical pronouncements with one and sometimes two pinches of salt, particularly during Ramadan, when Arab satellite networks compete to broadcast the most lavish shows.

Lamis Darwish, 28, an avid Nour fan living in Ryadh, said: "I still watch it." She added that Sheikh Lihedan's comments were the topic of much discussion, with many people astonished that he would make such a drastic statement without considering the repercussions for society. Ms Darwish said such figures should "think about the future, what will happen later," when issuing religious pronouncements, .

She also noted that those most in jeopardy from the views of clerics such as Sheikh Lihedan were members of the royal family because "all the owners of TV channels are princes". Many of the most popular Arab satellite networks, which sometimes air music videos regarded as obscene by Muslim conservatives, are owned by Saudi princes and well-connected Saudi businessmen. Rotana, for example, is owned by Prince al Waleed bin Talal, a billionaire businessman. And Nour was shown by MBC, which is owned by a brother-in-law of the late King Fahd.

Sheikh Obaikan called on Saudi Islamic scholars to denounce Sheikh Lihedan's comments before they become known as government policy. "It is a very dangerous matter which should be urgently tackled by the Islamic scholars," he said. "I am afraid that this will be considered as the opinion of the Saudi Muslim scholars or even of the state." [e-mail]