Al-Riyadh newspaper reported Saturday that Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh, who has delivered the sermon since 1981, will be replaced by Sheikh Saleh bin Hamid.
Hamid previously served as chairman of the top consultative Shura Council and was appointed to the Supreme Judicial Council before serving as a royal adviser. The newspaper did not give a reason for the change.
Earlier, the radical Saudi mufti had sparked controversy by claiming that Iranian Shias were “not Muslims.”
Al Sheikh preaches Wahhabism, a radical “ideology” that inspires Takfiri terrorists across the world.
His remarks about Iranian Shias were met by a response from Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who pointed to the link between Wahhabism and Takfiri terrorism and said there indeed existed no similarity between the Islam practiced by Iranians and that by the Wahhabis.
“Indeed; no resemblance between Islam of Iranians & most Muslims & bigoted extremism that Wahhabi top cleric & Saudi terror masters preach,” Zarif tweeted after the remarks by Al Sheikh.
