KSA top religious authority says no to cinemas

Top religious official in Saudi Arabia has said legalizing cinemas and concerts would “open doors to evil.”

Radical Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh who is a religious authority has strongly dismissed the proposal to reopen cinemas in Saudi Arabia on his weekly television program, saying that “motion pictures may broadcast shameless, unethical, atheistic or rotten films.

“Opening of movie houses at all times is an invitation to mixing of sexes,” he added.

Saudi Arabia has legally banished public cinemas since the 1980s, but head of the General Authority for Entertainment, Amr al-Madani earlier on announced that changes would be possible.

The radical mufti also noted that “I hope those in charge of the entertainment authority are guided to turn it from bad to good and not to open doors to evil.”

The grand mufti was highly criticized in 2012 after issuing a fatwa on approving marriage of girls as young as 10, saying good upbringing makes a girl ready to perform all the marital duties.

The Saudi cinema industry has produced a very limited number of films during the recent years.

The most significant of them was ‘Wadjda’, shot in 2012 by the country’s first female director, Haifaa al-Mansour.

The film that was introduced as Saudi Arabia’s representative for a foreign language film at Oscars and shortlisted for the same award at Bafta is about an 11-year-old girl who wishes to have a bicycle.

Al Sheikh preaches Wahhabism, a radical “ideology” that inspires Takfiri terrorists across the world.

MG/AG