Abdul Aziz al-Asheik

Abdul Aziz Al-Asheik has been the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia since 1999. Al-Sheik was appointed to the Council of Senior Scholars in 1986 where he served on the Committee for Islamic Research and Fatwas. He served as deputy for the former Grand Mufti Sheik Abdul Aziz Ibn Baaz until assuming the title of mufti after Ibn Baaz’s death. As grand mufti, Al-Asheik consolidated the power of the mufti and proved to be a staunch ally of the Royal Family. In 2010, Al-Asheik rebuked the chairman of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Sheikh Ahmad Qasim Al-Ghamdi, for issuing fatwas against mixed-gender shopping centers, charging that only the highest ranked clerics had the authority to issue fatwas. King Abdullah supported Al-Asheik by forbidding lower level scholars from issuing religious rulings. Al-Asheik has publicly denounced terrorism and criticized violence in the name of Islam.