Image by [Mehmet Acer / Anadolu Agency]
Saudi Arabia has sentenced a imam to 12 years in prison for offering prayers at the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul eight years ago to give a different image to the world.
A Saudi court on Wednesday sentenced Quran-reader Imam Abdullah Basfar to 12 years in prison for "accepting an invitation to lead the imamat in the courtyard of the Hagia Sophia mosque in Turkey," according to the Saudi rights organization Prisoners of Consciousness.
The organization said that "we condemn this decision", and we call on the authorities to unconditionally release the imam immediately.
Imam Abdullah Basfar, as being one of the most prominent religious figures within the kingdom, previously held the position of an assistant professor in Sharia and Islamic studies at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah.
But his image changed in August 2020, when a video of him praying at the Hagia Sophia surfaced in 2014, and spread online. He was then placed in trial custody for two years, where he was allegedly harassed by the interrogators.
Hagia Sophia was a museum in 2014, in July 2020 when the Turkish government converted the historic building back into a mosque.
The exact reason for his arrest has not been clarified by Saudi authorities, but it is believed that the reason for his arrest was his imamat at Hagia Sophia in 2014, when Saudi-Turkey relations were extremely tense.
While the state and its supporters believe that such increased detention of imams, scholars and religious figures is part of a crackdown on extremism, From such incidents, it appears that the subordinate government is trying to erase the religious identity of Saudi Arabia.
News Source Middle East Monitor