{"id":901,"date":"2017-10-26T12:39:59","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T12:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/?p=901"},"modified":"2017-10-26T12:39:59","modified_gmt":"2017-10-26T12:39:59","slug":"a-return-to-moderate-islam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2017\/10\/26\/a-return-to-moderate-islam\/","title":{"rendered":"a return to moderate islam"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"body-200771816342556199\" class=\"article-p-wrapper\">\n<p>Crown Prince\u00a0Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday said\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/saudi-arabia.html\">Saudi Arabia<\/a>\u00a0would &#8220;return&#8221; to a &#8220;moderate Islam that is open to all religions&#8221; &#8211; comments likely to rile staunch conservatives in the Gulf kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>The crown prince also announced Saudi Arabia would &#8220;eradicate promoters of extremist thoughts&#8221;, saying the country was not like this in the past.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are returning to what we were before &#8211; a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world,&#8221; the 32-year-old heir to the throne said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"SandboxRoot env-bp-350\">\n<div id=\"twitter-widget-0\" class=\"EmbeddedTweet EmbeddedTweet--edge js-clickToOpenTarget tweet-InformationCircle-widgetParent\" lang=\"en\">\n<div class=\"EmbeddedTweet-tweet\">\n<blockquote class=\"Tweet h-entry js-tweetIdInfo subject expanded\n                   is-deciderHtmlWhitespace\" cite=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Spa_Eng\/status\/922808026553372672\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"Tweet-header u-cf\">\n<div class=\"Tweet-brand u-floatRight\">\n<div class=\"Icon Icon--twitter \" title=\"View on Twitter\" role=\"presentation\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"u-hiddenInNarrowEnv\"><a class=\"FollowButton FollowButton--edge follow-button profile\" title=\"Follow SPAENG on Twitter\" role=\"button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Spa_Eng\"><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"SandboxRoot env-bp-350\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-opinion-bodySideBlock article-embed-tb-block article-embedded-card\"><\/div>\n<p>During Tuesday&#8217;s event, Salman voiced his confidence in Saudi Arabia&#8217;s younger generation and its ability to adjust to a post-oil world, mentioning, among other things, the benefits of solar power.<\/p>\n<p>Bin Salman&#8217;s remarks come a month after Saudi Arabia made a landmark<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2017\/09\/saudi-arabia-women-drive-170926190857109.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0decision<\/a>\u00a0to allow women to legally drive vehicles starting in June 2018, a move that was criticised by some conservative voices on Saudi social media but welcomed by rights activists.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive.<\/p>\n<p>MBS was appointed crown prince in June this year.<\/p>\n<p>Despite pledges of reform, critics have highlighted\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2017\/09\/rights-groups-slam-saudi-arrests-religious-figures-170915153115745.html\">the continuing crackdown<\/a>\u00a0on human rights activists and others challenging the status quo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body-artSource\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crown Prince\u00a0Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday said\u00a0Saudi Arabia\u00a0would &#8220;return&#8221; to a &#8220;moderate Islam that is open to all religions&#8221; &#8211; comments likely to rile staunch conservatives in the Gulf kingdom. The crown prince also announced Saudi Arabia would &#8220;eradicate promoters of extremist thoughts&#8221;, saying the country was not like this in the past. &#8220;We are returning to what we were&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2017\/10\/26\/a-return-to-moderate-islam\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":902,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901\/revisions\/902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}