Saudi Prince, Asserting Power, Brings Clerics to Heel
That is what is in their minds, that it is not right and
that it will bring more corruption than benefits." Like other clerics, he saw no religious reason to bar women from driving but said he was against changing the status of women in ways that he said violated Islamic law.
5, 2017
BURAIDA, Saudi Arabia — For decades, Saudi Arabia’s religious establishment wielded tremendous power, with bearded enforcers policing public behavior, prominent sheikhs defining right
and wrong, and religious associations using the kingdom’s oil wealth to promote their intolerant interpretation of Islam around the world.
"All those who thought about saying no to the government got arrested." He acknowledged
that many conservatives have reservations about the new direction but would go along, in part because Saudi Islam emphasizes obedience to the ruler.
Before the arrests on Saturday of his fellow royals
and former ministers on corruption allegations, Prince Mohammed had stripped the religious police of their arrest powers and expanded the space for women in public life, including promising them the right to drive.
"But in the end, people go through the door that you open for them." The clerics have long been subservient to the royal family,
but their independence has eroded as they became government functionaries and have been forced to accept — and at times sanction — policies they disliked, like the arrival of American troops, whom they considered infidels, during the Gulf War in 1990.
