Saudi mufti warns of ‘depravity’ of cinemas and concerts

Grand Mufti Abdulaziz Al Sheikh said there is 'no good' in singing concerts, insisting that music entertainment and opening cinemas represent a 'call for mixing between sexes'

Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Abdulaziz Al Sheikh prays at the Imam Turki bin Abdullah mosque in Riyadh during Eid Al Fitr morning prayers on September 9, 2010. Hassan Ammar, File/AP Photo

RIYADH // Saudi Arabia’s highest-ranking cleric has warned of the “depravity” of cinemas and music concerts, saying they would corrupt morals if allowed in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

“We know that singing concerts and cinemas are a depravity,” Grand Mufti Abdulaziz Al Sheikh said in a television interview cited by the Sabq news website late on Friday.

The head of the Saudi supreme council of clerics was responding to a question about the plans of the kingdom’s General Authority for Entertainment to licence concerts and study opening cinemas.

He warned that cinemas “might show movies that are libertine, lewd, immoral and atheist, because they rely on films imported to change our culture”, according to Sabq.

He said there is “no good” in singing concerts, insisting that music entertainment and opening cinemas represent a “call for mixing between sexes”.

“At the beginning they would assign areas for women, but then both men and women will end up in one area. This corrupts morals and destroys values,” he said.

However, “entertainment through cultural and scientific media is okay”, he said, urging the authority “not to open doors for evil”.

Developing tourism and entertainment in the desert kingdom is one of the wide-ranging goals of Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 announced in April.

The entertainment authority has lined up several events, but a show by American stand-up comedian and actor Mike Epps at a university campus in western Saudi Arabia was cancelled last month.

* Agence France-Presse