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Some astounding things have been coming out of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as of late. One of the most recent developments is the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST<\/a>), a high-tech university intended<\/a> to promote international research which opened last Fall. What is most unique about this school, by Saudi standards, is that it is outside the influence of the Education Ministry and will have no separation of the sexes, being the first mixed-gender school in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n Of course, this has caused outrage among some conservative clerics. \u201cWhoever allows this mixing \u2026 allows forbidden things, and whoever allows them is an infidel and this means defection from Islam \u2026 Either he retracts or he must be killed \u2026 because he disavows and does not observe the Sharia,\u201d said Shaikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak on his website. Although al-Barrak does not hold a government position, chairman of the Interior Ministry\u2019s religious advisers, Sheikh Muhammad al-Nujaimi, supported<\/a> this fatwa. Another cleric, Sheikh Saad bin Nasser al-Shithri, was sacked<\/a> by King Abdullah because of his public comments against the co-education of KAUST.<\/p>\n Yet, stunningly, the head of the Meccan \u201creligious police\u201d \u2013 the very people who enforce gender segregation \u2013 Sheikh Ahmed al-Ghamdi supported the mixing of genders at KAUST. In an interview<\/a> with the Saudi newspaper Okaz, al-Ghamdi said:<\/p>\n \u201cThe term \u2018ikhtilat\u2019 [gender mixing] in this usage is a recent adoption that was unknown to the early people of knowledge\u2026Mixing was part of normal life for the Ummah and its societies\u2026The word in its contemporary meaning has entered customary jurisprudential terminology from outside\u2026Those 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\u2026In many Muslim houses \u2013 even those of Muslims who say mixing is haram \u2013 you can find female servants working around unrelated males\u2026Those who prohibit ikhtilat cling to weak Ahadeeth, while the correct Ahadeeth prove that mixing is permissible, contrary to what they claim.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Such a view was also supported<\/a> by the influential cleric Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, head of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, and none other than Sheikh Ali Al-Jum\u2019ah, the Grand Mufti of Egypt.<\/p>\n Indeed, this is a most welcome development to come out of Saudi Arabia, and one hopes much such \u201cinnovations\u201d are forthcoming from the land of Mecca and Medina. Yet, this begs the question: if gender segregation, long established as \u201cIslamic orthodoxy\u201d for decades, is a \u201crecent adoption that was unknown to the early people of knowledge\u201d; if gender segregation is supported by \u201cweak Ahadeeth, while the correct Ahadeeth prove that mixing is permissible\u201d; if, as the Saudi Minister of Justice recently said<\/a>, complete segregation of the sexes:<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026has ignored evidence from the Prophet\u2019s Sunna and Khulafa and those after them, which differentiated between mixing in public with modesty and chasteness \u2013 with being wary of factors that could lead to what is prohibited, like women adorning themselves or wearing make up, close mingling, leniency and not lowering one\u2019s gaze, \u2013 and mixing that in a way that is not.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Why are they saying this now? Why was this not revealed before? Were these \u201cweak Ahadeeth\u201d recently discovered? Why didn\u2019t more scholars speak up? If the separation of sexes is more of a cultural issue and not religious, then why place a \u201cstamp of religious approval\u201d on the practice? Why, Sheikh Muhamad al-Nujaimi, who supported a fatwa calling for death to those who advocate mixing of the sexes, was shown mixing with women<\/a> himself at a conference in Kuwait. Are their opinions good enough for the people, but not good enough for themselves?<\/p>\n I can\u2019t help but ask: what will be next? On what other issue with the scholars say, \u201cwell\u2026actually\u2026it\u2019s not really haram\u201d? Aren\u2019t these scholars concerned about this verse of the Qur\u2019an:<\/p>\n \u2026Who is more unjust than those who conceal the testimony they have from God, but God is not unmindful of what ye do! (2:140)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I specifically remember a speaker at an Islamic conference say that he told the youth that music was haram because the next year, the kids would be coming with boom boxes on their shoulders. I also remember a very prominent scholar (whose name I will not mention) say something to the effect of, \u201cBefore, I used to say that this is haram. But, as I have become older, I have become more lenient on this issue.\u201d Is this an acceptable reason to make what is normally allowed be haram? If it is allowed now, why wasn\u2019t it allowed back then? Do they not make themselves \u201clords beside God,\u201d as the Qur\u2019an asserts, when they do such a thing?<\/p>\n What about this verse of the Qur\u2019an:<\/p>\n But say not \u2013 for any false thing that your tongue may put forth \u2013 \u201cThis is lawful, and this is forbidden,\u201d so as to ascribe false things to God. For those who ascribe false things to God will never prosper. (16:116)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Does this verse not concern any of the scholars who have repeatedly asserted gender segregation as \u201cIslamic doctrine\u201d?<\/p>\n If something is permissible, then it should be permissible for all times and circumstances (except, perhaps, in some certain situations). If something is truly impermissible, then it should be so for all times and circumstances, excepting, again, specific situations in which necessity arises. Saying, \u201cum\u2026actually\u2026it\u2019s not really haram\u201d does an enormous disservice to the faithful, who sincerely look to the scholars for guidance on how to live their lives according to the will of God. Does this not bother you, too?<\/p>\n (Photo: KAUST<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n