Abdul-Rahman bin Nasir al-Barrak ( ar, عبد الرحمن بن ناصر البراك, born 1933 or 1934) is a Saudi

Salafi The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a reform branch movement within Sunni Islam that originated during the nineteenth century. The name refers to advocacy of a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors" (), the first three generat ...

cleric. In 1994, al-Barrak and other Saudi clerics were mentioned by name and praised by

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

for opposing then-

Grand Mufti The Grand Mufti (also called Chief Mufti, State Mufti and Supreme Mufti) is the head of regional muftis, Islamic jurisconsults, of a state. The office originated in the early modern era in the Ottoman empire and has been later adopted in a num ...

Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz Sheikh Abd al Aziz ibn Abdullah ibn Baz ( ar, عبد العزيز بن عبد الله بن باز, ʿAbd al ʿAzīz bin ʿAbdullāh bin Bāz, 21 November 1912 – 13 May 1999) was a Saudi Arabian Islamic scholar who served as the Grand Mufti of S ...

in his Open Letter to Shaykh Bin Baz on the Invalidity of his Fatwa on Peace with the Jews. His

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

was banned in Saudi Arabia because it was “promoting bold ideas and theses”.

Fatwas

Al-Barrak has drawn attention for issuing controversial

fatwa A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist i ...

s, or religious edicts. One such fatwa called for strict

gender segregation Sex segregation, sex separation, gender segregation or gender separation is the physical, legal, or cultural separation of people according to their biological sex. Sex segregation can refer simply to the physical and spatial separation by sex w ...

. The fatwa states, "Whoever allows this mixing ... allows forbidden things, and whoever allows them is a

kafir Kafir ( ar, كافر '; plural ', ' or '; feminine '; feminine plural ' or ') is an Arabic and Islamic term which, in the Islamic tradition, refers to a person who disbelieves in God as per Islam, or denies his authority, or rejects ...

and this means defection from Islam ... Either he retracts or he must be killed ... because he disavows and does not observe the

Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

." In March 2008, al-Barrak issued a fatwa that two writers for the newspaper ''

Al Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the R ...

'', Abdullah bin Bejad al-Otaibi and Yousef Aba al-Khail, should be tried for

apostasy Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that i ...

for their "heretical articles" regarding the categorization of "unbelievers" and put to death if they did not repent.Top Saudi cleric calls for writers' deaths
Reuters, 2008-03-15

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrak, Abdul-Rahman 1930s births Living people Saudi Arabian Sunni clerics Fatwas Sex segregation and Islam Critics of Shia Islam Saudi Arabian Salafis People from Al Bukayriah Academic staff of Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University Saudi Arabian imams Saudi Arabian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam Year of birth missing (living people)