The young prince leading Saudi Arabia's drive for economic reform has laid out a three-pronged strategy to avoid a backlash from any religious conservatives opposed to his plan, according to remarks reported by Foreign Affairs magazine on Saturday. Prince Mohammed said he believed only a small percentage of the kingdom's clerics were too dogmatic to be reasoned with, the journal reported, while more than half could be persuaded to support his reforms through engagement and dialogue. The rest were ambivalent or not in a position to cause problems, he is reported to have said. Saudi Arabia's clerics offer legitimacy and public support to a king who styles himself the guardian of Islam's holiest sites. In the later years of the reign of King Abdullah, King Salman’s predecessor, some senior clerics who opposed his cautious social reforms too openly lost their jobs.

Source: Egypt Independent January 08, 2017 08:18 UTC