Saudi cleric criticises fatwa against writers

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia's top cleric has taken a rare stance against radical colleagues who brand some writers as infidels, a charge that can be used to justify violence against them, media reported on Monday.

Grand Mufti Shaikh Abdul Aziz Al Al Shaikh said in a lecture last week that clerics should be careful before rushing to denounce writers as apostates from Islam, a practice known as takfeer and which Al Qaida uses to condemn many Muslim rulers.

Shaikh Abdul Rahman Al Barrak, a highly revered independent cleric, said in March that two newspaper columnists should be put to death if they did not renounce their "heretical articles" in public. He was supported by 20 other clerics.

"[Takfeer] should come from knowledge, perception, understanding and awareness of the issue, and study," he said in the comments reported in Al Hayat newspaper.