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But basically if I am reading the Arabic correctly, open season was just announced on the ruling family, no holds barred.

But who wrote the article? Even if it claims to be a "fatwa," the Muslim community would only consider it to be as legitimate as its author. Islam doesn't have anyone equivalent to the Pope - anyone could in principle issue s "fatwa" though only those from respected clerics would be taken seriously.

There have also been lots of other pronouncements over the years against the House of Saud ... so far without much effect. Their days are probably numbered however - they've run the kingdom in a harsh and unjust manner, taking most of the country's wealth for themselves and not allowing much to filter down to the commoners or to build the country's infrastructure outside of oil. There are a lot of their own citizens who would be happy to see them go. Sooner or later things will boil over and the royals will be gone - and hopefully someone more moderate than al-Qaeda(!) will be there in their place.

But none of this is anything new.

I'm trying to research this Sheikh Abu Basir who appears to have written the fattwa.

This fattwa has popping up all over the place during the past hour (no, I'm not going to post the links here because I get a lot of information from them; yes, I have passed them on to the appropriate authorities).

It was issued by Saudi radical scholar Abd al-Munim Halimah Abu Basir. It appears to not be a new fatwa but was issued originally in July and has been reissued. You can read more about it at:
http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/g_j/rp_g_11_03.htm

I'm sorry, I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you. There is new material here. This fatwa has been reissued.

If you review the fatwa, it specifically refers to the arrest of three men: Sheikh Al Khadhir, Sheikh Al Fahd, and Sheikh al Khaled. It specifically refers to the Riyadh attacks in November.

I just spent the last few minutes reading the earlier fatwa and will do a more thorough analysis and comparison.

Basically someone has decided to bring this to the forefront again. That bears watching.