Ghamdi in interview prior to the latest rumors. JEDDAH – Sheikh Ahmad Qassim Al-Ghamdi, the Makkah head of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Hai'a), has denied that he has been relieved of his post, according to Al-Madina Arabic daily Wednesday. The Associated Press reported that Al-Ghamdi had been dismissed following remarks in a recent interview that the mixing of the sexes – “ikhtilat” – should not be banned, while other news sources blamed a study published in Al-Madina on prayers in congregation. “The news of my termination is false,” Al-Madina cited Al-Ghamdi as saying. “I have received no notification either verbally or in writing and I am continuing my duties as normal.” This is not the first time that Sheikh Al-Ghamdi has been subject to rumors of dismissal following comments in the press. In December reports abounded that he had been removed from his post following an interview, published in Saudi Gazette on Dec. 11, in which he spoke at length on ikhtilat, and confusion was exacerbated when Abdulrahman Al-Juhani, head of the Hai'a in Taif, appeared at Al-Ghamdi's office, apparently ready to take up the duties of his new promotion as head of the Commission in Makkah. The national spokesman for the Hai'a moved to deny the rumors, saying they “bear not the slightest truth”. Al-Ghamid's December interview with Okaz, made in the context of the recently opened coeducational King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, was his first expression of his views on ikhtilat, describing it, “in its current usage”, as “a recent adoption unknown to the early people of knowledge”, and he pointed toward a contradiction in contemporary practice. “Mixing was part of normal life for the Ummah and its societies,” he said. “The word in its contemporary meaning has entered customary jurisprudential terminology from outside.” “Those who prohibit the mixing of the genders actually live it in their real lives, which is an objectionable contradiction as every fair-minded Muslim should follow Shariah judgments without excess or negligence.” “In many Muslim houses – even those of Muslims who say mixing is haraam – you can find female servants working around unrelated males,” he added. The Sheikh cited numerous ahadeeth – sayings of the Prophet – to support his position, and added: “Those who prohibit ikhtilat cling to weak ahadeeth, while the correct ahadeeth prove that mixing is permissible, contrary to what they claim.” The Sheikh later reiterated his views in April at the Taif Literary Club, telling Okaz: “You can write in the newspaper from my own mouth that I still hold to the view I expressed on ikhtilat, and I won't go back on it, and I'll continue to repeat what I wrote.” The most recent promised repetition that appears to have prompted the latest reports concerning his dismissal occurred in an Okaz interview on April 17 in which Al-Ghamdi described ikhtilat as “natural”, saying that “there is no good reason to ban it”. That interview, however, predominantly addressed a study Al-Ghamdi had recently published on jurisprudential views of praying in congregation. The 190-page Arabic document was made available on the Okaz website, while Al-Ghamdi had noted in April while the work was still in progress that it “involves research and studies but has no bearing on the work of the Hai'a”, adding that “people can take it or leave it as they see fit”. The 47-year-old Hai'a chief has addressed several controversial topics in addition to ikhtilat during interviews over the last few months, including the employment of women in the Hai'a and the closure of shops during prayer times. He has also described the “greatest enemy of change and development” as the “clinging to customs and tradition”. Further to that, the Sheikh repeated last Saturday claims first made in Taif that he had objectors within his own organization motivated out of “revenge” after he had punished them for “administrative offenses”. He said that he and his family had been targeted, and expressed concerns at “intransigent” and “uncontrollable” Hai'a staff in Makkah “ignoring and refusing to carry out instructions”. “This shows that there is still an urgent need in the Haia for moderate, knowledgeable and qualified people, particularly in senior and key posts,” he said in the interview on Saturday. “It should be understood that moderation and flexibility are some of the basic principles of Islam. Moderation and flexibility signify righteousness. They are the middle way between extremism and fundamentalism,” Sheikh Al
