Muslim scholars lead efforts to release colleagues in Saudi Arabia

A number of Saudi Arabian and Arab Muslim scholars have been seeking the release of their colleagues arrested on Sunday in the Kingdom, Quds Press has reported. There is speculation that the arrests have been made in order to silence potential critics of the succession from King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz to his son Mohammad Bin Salman, the Crown Prince.

On Sunday, the Saudi authorities arrested a number of Muslim scholars and famous preachers, including Sheikh Salman Al-Ouda, Awad Al-Qarni and Ali Al-Omar. Further arrests took place on Monday, with Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Harithi, Sheikh Mohamed Al-Khodairi, Hassan Farhan, Gharm Al-Beeshi and others detained.

Well-known Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi used Twitter to comment on the situation: “I cannot imagine that the two Sheikhs Awad Al-Qarni and Salman Al-Ouda were arrested. Our country and its people do not deserve this… There must be [some] misunderstanding.”

Read: Al-Qaradawi removed from Interpol’s ‘wanted’ list

Other activists on social media pointed out that the scholars who have been arrested have largely stayed silent about the blockade of Qatar led by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt. The implication is that the detainees have not given the government their support and a veneer of religious justification for the action against Qatar. One activist said on Twitter, “We had called for freedom of expression, but today we call for the freedom to keep silent.”

Some of the Sheikhs arrested have 10 to 15 million followers on Twitter, most of them Saudi youth.