Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, Saudi Arabia ‘s grand mufti who served the kingdom’s top religious figure over a quarter century that saw the ultraconservative Muslim nation socially liberalize, died Tuesday. He was in his 80s, AP reports.
Saudi Arabia’s state media reported Sheikh Abdulaziz’s death, without offering a cause. The kingdom’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who runs the kingdom’s day-to-day governance under his 89-year-old father, King Salman, attended funeral prayers for the late mufti on Tuesday night in Riyadh.
“With his passing, the kingdom and the Islamic world have lost a distinguished scholar who made significant contributions to the service of Islam and Muslims,” the Saudi Royal Court said in a statement.
Sheikh Abdulaziz, who became blind as a young man, became grand mufti in 1999, installed by Saudi King Fahd. At the time, the kingdom remained segregated and its people closely policed by the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. Those views could be seen in the grand mufti’s earlier reported comments, such as condemning mobile phone cameras in 2004 for possibly being “exploited to photograph and spread vice in the community.”
