Saudi university critic loses job

Riyadh, 07 Oct-(ANA)-King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has sacked a senior cleric who criticised a new science and technology university which opened in September.

The cleric, Sheikh Saad al-Shethry, said the mixing of sexes in any university was evil and a great sin.

He demanded the curriculum should be vetted by Islamic scholars to prevent teaching of "alien ideologies".

The $7bn university near Jeddah, named after King Abdullah, is a key project of the reform-minded Saudi monarch.

In what is being seen as a rare intervention, a royal decree removed Sheikh Saad from Saudi Arabia's most senior council of religious scholars, or ulema.

No reason was given publicly for the removal. (ANA)

FA/ANA/07 October 2009---