Alwaght- The Saudi regime has detained a prominent imam and preacher at the Grand Mosque in Mecca after he reportedly delivered a sermon criticizing mixed public gatherings.
The social media advocacy group Prisoners of Conscience, which monitors and documents arrests of Saudi preachers and religious scholars, said on Sunday that Sheikh Saleh al-Talib was arrested after he delivered a sermon on the duty in Islam to speak out against evil in public.
During the address, he also challenged “mixed public gatherings” of men and women, an initiative recently promoted by Saudi regime's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s as part of his so-called moderation project.
Saudi authorities have yet to make any statement on the fate of Talib or his whereabouts.
Some reports suggested that the imam’s English and Arabic twitter accounts had been deactivated within hours after his reported arrest.
Since Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, became the Saudi crown prince in June 2017, dozens of imams, women's rights activists and members of the ruling royal family have been detained.
Among those arrested are prominent Islamic preachers Salman al-Awdah, Awad al-Qarni, Farhan al-Malki, Mostafa Hassan and Safar al-Hawali. Al-Awdah and al-Qarni, who have millions of followers on social media, were arrested last September and was accused of having links to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group Saudi Arabia blacklisted as a "terror organization".
Meanwhile, al-Hawali, 68, was detained after he published a 3,000-page book attacking bin Salman and the ruling family over their ties to the Israeli regime, calling it a "betrayal".
