Saudi Arabia appoints Sheikh Saleh bin Fawzan al-Fawzan as kingdoms new grand mufti

Saudi Arabia appointed a outstanding ultraconservative scholar late on Wednesday (October 22, 2025) because the nation’s new grand mufti, the dominion’s prime non secular scholar.

Sheikh Saleh bin Fawzan al-Fawzan, 90, took over the place, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported. The choice got here from King Salman, based mostly on the advice of his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the report added.

Sheikh Saleh, reportedly born Sept. 28, 1935, in Saudi Arabia’s al-Qassim province, studied the Quran with an area imam after his father’s loss of life. He turned a outstanding scholar, talking to the trustworthy through the “Noor ala al-Darb,” or “Light the Way,” radio present and through a number of books he is authored and his tv appearances. His fatwas, or non secular orders, have been shared through social media as nicely.

Sheikh Saleh has confronted criticism in Western media up to now for a few of his pronouncements. Human Rights Watch in 2017 reported Sheikh Saleh, when requested if Sunni Muslims ought to view Shiite as their “brothers,” responded: “They are brothers of Satan.”

The Shiite “lie about God, his prophet, and the consensus of Muslims … There is little doubt in regards to the unbelief of those” individuals, Human Rights Watch individually quoted Sheikh Saleh saying at one other second.

Such feedback in regards to the Shiite from non secular leaders in Saudi Arabia are widespread, significantly amid political tensions between the dominion and Iran. Sheikh Saleh additionally criticized Yemen’s Houthi rebels for firing missiles towards holy websites within the kingdom.

In 2003, Sheikh Saleh was quoted as saying: “Slavery is part of Islam. Slavery is a part of jihad, and jihad will stay so long as there’s Islam.”

The sheikh additionally had a fatwa attributed to him in 2016 banning the cellular sport “Pokémon Go” as a type of playing. Saudi Arabia below Crown Prince Mohammed now owns a large stake in Nintendo and the gaming division of Niantic, the maker of “Pokémon Go.”

Sheikh Saleh takes the publish after the September loss of life of Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, who held the place of grand mufti for 1 / 4 century.

The al-Sheikh household, descendants of Sheikh Mohammed Ibn Abdul-Wahhab, lengthy had seen its members function the grand mufti. Sheikh Mohammed’s ultraconservative teachings of Islam within the 18th century, extensively known as “Wahhabism” in his identify, had guided the dominion for many years, significantly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran noticed the dominion develop much more conservative.