Then, last month, the head of the federation representing Saudi businesses announced that shops, restaurants and other enterprises would be allowed to remain open during prayer time — another major development in a country where businesses, for decades, have closed five times a day. “Those days of inconvenience are now over,” an article in the English-language Arab News said.
These changes represent the latest steps taken by Saudi Arabia under its influential crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, to curtail the authority of the religious establishment. While many Saudis may cheer the moves as further evidence that Mohammed is liberalizing the kingdom, the developments also reflect his continuing effort to consolidate power and clip the wings of anyone who could challenge him.
Muslim clerics have long played a defining role in Saudi Arabia, an Islamic kingdom where religious leaders have passed edicts and made proclamations that rule the lives of millions of Saudis. The power of the clergy has also extended beyond the country’s borders, as many Muslims around the world look toward the kingdom for religious guidance and rulings.
But Mohammed, known by his initials as MBS, has repeatedly broken with the conservative clerics. Textbooks promoting radical Islamic views have been revised and the notoriously harsh powers of the religious police curbed. Women have been granted the right to drive and attend sporting events, and restaurants are no longer segregated by gender.
The erosion of clerical influence is particularly apparent at the Justice, Islamic Affairs and Education ministries, where the religious establishment has long played an outsize role.