ALQST expresses deep concern over the appointment of Saleh al-Fawzan as the new Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, given his long record of deeply discriminatory and inflammatory statements that undermine women’s rights and justify repression of dissent.

Al-Fawzan has previously made profoundly misogynistic remarks, stating that “the term ‘domestic violence’ is what has caused women to rebel” and describing women as “like the feeble-minded and the foolish; they have neither intellect nor religion”.

He has also publicly labelled critics of government officials as “like the Khawarij” — a term historically used to brand individuals as religious deviants and to justify their punishment or even execution.

This appointment takes place within a legal environment in which disagreement with the Grand Mufti’s views or official religious rulings can itself constitute a crime. In Saudi Arabia, fatwās and rulings issued by the Council of Senior Ulema, which the Grand Mufti chairs, are treated as sources of law — and challenging them can result in criminal charges.

The decision to appoint al-Fawzan therefore places independent religious scholars, secular thinkers, and women’s rights defenders at even greater risk, further narrowing the already limited space for freedom of thought and expression in Saudi Arabia.