Hyderabad: A leaked video of a jailed Saudi Islamic scholar has been doing rounds on the internet as the Riyadh Season 2021 kicked off this week. The Shaykh (expert in Islamic theology) can be seen merely expressing his opinion, which yet again raises serious questions on free speech in Saudi Arabia.
The scholar identified as Shaykh Umar al-Muqbil was jailed in 2019 right after his speech on entertainment and subsequently, his prison sentence got extended for six years on the day of the opening ceremony of Riyadh Season 2021.
“We are not against entertainment, we are against stripping society of its identity in the name of entertainment,” he remarked in the video.
An Instagram page muslim.daily with over 5.3 lakh followers, had first shared the post pointing out the behaviour of the Saudi regime towards free speech and how the kingdom is suppressing the voices of its own people to build a certain international image.