Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday vowed to restore “moderate, open” Islam and destroy owners of “extremist ideas today and immediately”.
“We are returning to what we were before -- a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world,” he said at an economic forum in Riyadh.
“We will not spend the next 30 years of our lives dealing with destructive ideas. We will destroy them today,” he added.
“We will end extremism very soon.”
Mohammed bin Salman: "We will not waste 30 years of our lives dealing with extremist ideas, we will destroy them today" #FII2017 pic.twitter.com/skvlO5rROx
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) October 24, 2017
The crown prince’s statement is the most direct attack by a top official on the Gulf country’s influential conservative religious establishment.
Earlier Tuesday, Riyadh announced the launch of an independent economic zone along the kingdom’s northwestern coastline.
The project, dubbed NEOM, will operate under regulations separate from those that govern the rest of Saudi Arabia.
