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RIYADH, KOMPAS.com – The Saudi Arabian authorities recently arrested Sheikh Abdullah Basfar, a well-known Muslim scholar and reciter or singer of the Quran.
Basfar’s arrest was communicated by the Prisoners of Conscience (PoC) through a Twitter account on Friday (9/4/2020) as proclaimed by Middle East Monitor, Saturday (5/9/2020).
The PoC said that Basfar was arrested in August without further detailing how and where he was detained.
“We confirm the arrest of Sheikh Abdullah Basfar since August 2020,” wrote the PoC account through its Twitter account.
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Basfar is a professor in the Department of Sharia and Islamic Studies at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
He is also the former general secretary of the World Book and Sunnah Association.
The report on the arrest of Sheikh Basfar came some time after the report on the arrest of Sheikh Saud Al-Funaisan.
Al-Funaisan was reportedly arrested in March.
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He is a university professor and former dean of the Sharia faculty at Al-Imam University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Some have hailed the arrests as part of a crackdown on extremism in the kingdom.
The move is in line with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman (MBS) plan to erase religious identity in Saudi Arabia.
Although there are those who support him, there are also a number of parties that oppose the arrest.
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Online media Rai Al Youm quoting a Saudi on Twitter saying that the elite they need is in prison.
“Our academics are arbitrarily detained, while insignificant people enjoy freedom and spread corruption in this country,” another Twitter user reportedly wrote. Rai Al Youm.
“This is an open campaign to get rid of Islam and spread evil on the ground Haramain, “He continued.
Since 2017, when MBS took power, it has cracked down on clerics, journalists, academics, and cyber activists for their critical views on how it governs the country and its plans to turn the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into a secular state.
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