In his war on extremism, Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salma made key remarks in a speech aired on Tuesday
Here are highlights of his statements:
- “Anyone who adopts an extremist position is criminal and will be held accountable.”
- "The Kingdom affirms its rejection of exaggeration in religion or in any matter whatsoever."
- “I am committed to the constitution of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is the Qur’an and Sunnah.”
- “The kingdom’s constitution is the Qur’an which is the basic system of the government. This will last forever.”
- "In the social and personal matters, I should not introduce a Sharia punishment without a clear Quranic text."
- "Ijtihad is forever open."
- “If Sheikh Mohamed bin Abd al-Wahhab, came out of his grave and found that we adhere to his texts and close our minds to ijtihad he will object that. There is no fixed school and there is no fixed person, the Qur’an and ijtihad are continuing.”
On the extremist rhetoric, the Saudi Crown Prince said:
- “Extremism in everything is not permissible. Do not go to extremes in your religion. What destroyed previous generations was the exaggeration in their religion. Exaggeration in religion or in our culture or Arabism or anything is very dangerous.”
- “The Kingdom was a prime target for extremist and terrorist projects around the world.”
- "Every extremist ideology, when it wants to start, will undoubtedly target the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."
- "Today, we cannot neither grow nor attract investments and tourism nor advance in the presence of an extremist ideology in Saudi Arabia."
- “If we want millions of jobs, reduced unemployment, and economic growth, we must eradicate extremism.”
