(Riyadh) The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday described homosexuality as one of the “most despicable crimes”, at a time when the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom is spending billions to improve its image around the world.
Abdelaziz Al-Sheikh spoke days after the Saudi ambassador to the United Nations rejected mention of homosexuality in a General Assembly resolution on democracy, according to the country’s media.
“The crime of homosexuality is one of the most heinous and heinous crimes in the sight of God,” said the mufti, the kingdom’s highest religious authority.
“The perpetrators of this crime” carry on them “shame and infamy”, he added in a statement quoted by the official Saudi press agency SPA.
According to him, human rights reside “first and last in the law of God”, denouncing the “deviant impulses which sow corruption in the world”.
Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United Nations said on Friday that the expressions “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” were “contrary to the historic Arab and Islamic identity” of his country.
Homosexuality is illegal in the Gulf oil monarchy, which applies an ultra-strict form of sharia, Islamic law.
The kingdom retains an important aura throughout the Muslim world, housing the holiest places in Islam, the cities of Mecca and Medina (west).
In recent years, Crown Prince Mohammed ben Salman has pursued a stated policy of social and economic openness, allowing women to drive or even the holding of major events with a mixed audience.
But the country remains very conservative and human rights violations are regularly criticized by NGOs.