Al Qaeda on Arabian Peninsula’s mufti tees off on new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. (More on the opening of the university here)
In early November, [Ibrahim Suleiman al] Rubaish questioned Saudi King Abdullah’s decision to allow men and women to jointly attend the new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. According to a translation of Rubaish’s statement prepared by the SITE Intelligence group, Rubaish blasted the decision as a violation of sharia law and said that King Abdullah was moving his country towards “secularism.”
“If [King Abdullah] is not able to distinguish between good and evil and what is good and harmful, then how can he be put as the ruler over millions of people?,” Rubaish asked. “I call upon every Muslim to (distance themselves) from this agent apostate government, that has clearly demonstrated that it prefers infidelity to faith, and that all it wants from Islam is the parts that do not affect its secularist method.”
I suspect the original motivation for creating the university had something to do with feelings of frustration and humiliation about this:
…despite the efforts of scientists and researchers throughout the region, the Arab world makes up only 1.1% of global scientific publishing and the low level of investment into research has led to relatively low levels of innovation throughout the Arab world.
I doubt a scientific research institution under an extremist regime would be able to do much to address the problem.
