The Saudis have been under pressure to encourage tolerance
Saudi Arabia is to retrain its 40,000 prayer leaders - also known as imams - in an effort to counter militant Islam.
Details of the plan were revealed in the influential Saudi newspaper Al- Sharq al-Awsat.
The plan is part of a wider programme launched by the Saudi monarch a few years ago to encourage moderation and tolerance in Saudi society.
The ministry of religious affairs and new centre for national dialogue will carry out the training, the paper said.
The centre was created five years ago to disseminate a moderate interpretation of Islamic tradition.
There is growing awareness in Saudi society that security measures alone are not enough to counter the threat of Islamic militancy.
Scepticism
Saudi clerics have long been accused of encouraging Saudi youth to join global jihad and of inciting hatred of non-Muslims.
Nearly 1,000 imams have already been sacked over the past few years.
The Saudi royal family has come under increasing pressure - mainly from Washington - to change religious textbooks and to rein in militant clerics.
But critics are sceptical about whether such initiatives would work as long as the powerful, and ultraconservative, religious establishment in Saudi Arabia continues to exert enormous influence over society.
I can't begin to imagine the problems they are going to have. Given that Saudi Arabia is the spiritual home of Wahabbism I'd say this is purely cosmetic. Perhaps the House of Saud has realised it's shot itself in the foot in giving succour to such a reactionary form of Islam and it's trying to protect itself.
Good try, but I still think it's a bunch of "eyewash"
Perhaps. I agree with diuretic. I think the true motive is in realizing that Wahabbism, while created to counteract Shi'ism, has backfired. I think it's an ass-saving measure painted as "doing the right thing" for the public in general.
__________________ “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” - Edmund Burke
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