Saudi King Blasted by Al-Qaeda Over Co-ed University

A member of Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni branch released an audio message online, in which he blasts the King of Saudi Arabia for creating a university for both men and women will attend.

REUTERS/ Khaled al-Hariri

Ibrahim al-Rubaish, a former Guatanamo prisoner, said King Abdullah is moving the ultra-conservative Kingdom closer to secularism.

“If he is not able to distinguish between good and evil and what is good and harmful, then how can he be put as the ruler over millions of people?” the recording goes.

“I call upon every Muslim to (distance themselves) from this agent apostate government, that has clearly demonstrated that it prefers infidelity to faith, and that all it wants from Islam is the the parts that do not affect its secularist method,” Rubaish said.

The 17-minute recording was posted on several jihadist websites starting November 1st.

The university – the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology – is meant for post-graduate students and researchers to work together. It is the first public university where men and women, unrelated to each other, will attend on Saudi soil.

Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam, and it follows the Wahhabism, the strictest form of the religion. The mixing of the sexes goes against Sharia law.

“What (does one think) of a woman who studies with a Christian or a Jew, whose study is being supervised by an atheist or a pagan?” Rubaish complained.

“The father of the daughter or the brother of the sister or the husband of the wife, how can they accept that these (women enroll) in this university, this university that violated Sharia, violating even the system that this government claims to apply?”

The 7 billion-dollar school is intended to be an international institute. It is located just north of Jeddah on the Red Sea coast.