Activists have called on Saudi authorities to release Sheikh Salah Al-Talib, the former imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, four years after his detention.
Taking to social media, activists expressed solidarity with Al-Talib using the hashtag “four years since the arrest of the Holy Mosque’s imam.”
Al-Talib was arrested in August 2018, after he gave a lecture on “evil-doing” and a Muslim’s duty to refuse such actions.
Over the past several years, Saudi authorities have arrested many Islamic scholars who are considered to be part of the Islamic revival, which took root between the 1960s and 1980s and called for incorporating Islamic rulings into Saudis’ daily lives.
Authorities accuse these scholars of imposing a strict interpretation of religion on the Saudi people, driving some to turn to extremism and join militant groups. But human rights groups say the detainees are not being granted their right to fair trials or even brought to justice.
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