Top Saudi cleric fired for coed school criticism

Tue Oct 6, 2009

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has removed a senior cleric from a top council of religious scholars who criticized the country's first mixed-gender university.

Late on Sunday, the state news agency SPA reported that based on a decision by King Abdullah, Sheikh Saad Al-Shithri was no longer on the top council of religious scholars.

Last week, Sheikh Al-Shithri attacked King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) for not implementing segregation laws.

The senior cleric said that classroom where men and women study together are “evil” and places of “great sin”. He claimed men would not be able to concentrate on their studies in such environments.

His comments sparked angry reactions from those who saw the new university as a beacon for research that will eventually help produce Saudi scientists.

Saudi Arabia implements a very strict version of Islam. In the Arab state, religious police patrol the streets to make sure that the country's segregation laws are followed.

The Saudi government has built King Abdullah University for Science and Technology with a budget of over seven billion dollars.

The academic establishment, which is seen as one of most important projects carried out during King Abdullah's reign, includes one of the world's fastest supercomputers and enrolls more than 800 students from around the world.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/107989.html.