Saudi cleric calls for writers' death

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia's most revered cleric said in a rare fatwa this week that two writers should be tried for apostasy and put to death if they do not repent.

Shaikh Abdul Rahman Al Barrak was responding to recent articles in Al Riyadh newspaper that questioned the mainstream Sunni view that adherents of other faiths should be considered unbelievers.

"Anyone who claims this has refuted Islam and should be tried in order to take it back. If not, he should be killed as an apostate from the religion of Islam," said the fatwa, or religious opinion, dated March 14 and published on Al Barrak's website (albarrak.islamlight.net).

"It is disgraceful that articles containing this kind of apostasy should be published in some papers of Saudi Arabia, the land of the two holy shrines," he said, referring to holy places in Makkah and Madinah.

"The rulers should hold these papers to account ... and all those who took part in the publication should know they were involved in the sin of heretical articles."

Al Barrak said the articles suggested Muslims were free to follow other religions. Rights groups have accused Wahhabism of a xenophobic attitude which demonises other religions.

Abdullah Bin Bejad Al Otaibi, one of the two writers, said he feared for his life and called on the government to intervene. The second writer was Yousuf Aba Al Khail.

"My articles have been met with fatwas before but it never got to this level of directly inciting murder or directly accusing someone of no longer being a Muslim," he said.

"If this is allowed to pass, this country will be transformed into an arena of bloodshed. It will be chaos."

Saudi Arabia regularly executes drug traffickers, rapists and murderers, but calls for people to be put to death for opinions expressed in public are rare.

Liberal reformers are engaged in a battle with religious hardliners over the direction of the country, a key US ally and the world's biggest oil exporter.

Diplomats say powerful clerics allied to some key members of the Saudi royal family have prevented the government under King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz from moving forward with social and political reforms.