Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman rattles Muslim clergy, challenges sources of sharia

This is huge. Those of us who have had hopes that Saudi Arabia can be transformed from a sponsor of hardline jihad into a modernizing force in the Islamic world have cause for optimism.

Remarks made by the real ruler of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), suggest that he is carefully laying the grounds for a fundamental reinterpretation of orthodox Islam.

Tarek Fatah, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, writes in the Toronto Sun:

When the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, challenged the fundamental precepts of Islamic Sharia in an interview on April 28, the tremors were so deep, they left most Muslims and their clerics in a state of silent shock.
MBS, as the crown prince is known, had questioned the very validity of 'Hadith' literature – sayings attributed to Prophet Muhammad – that provide much of what is today considered Islamic Law in places as far apart as Aceh in Indonesia to University campuses in California in the West.
As an example, the hijab suddenly lost its religious justification and much of the Islamic laws that created the Taliban lost their validation.
Many of us who had for decades fought the Saudization of Islam were taken aback by MBS's statements. The man who is turning his country slightly away from funding overseas jihads and civil wars had quietly heralded women's rights and in an unprecedented move included the Hindu texts of Mahabharat and Ramayana into the school syllabus.
These tremors in Islamdom were so deep and fundamental, they left the Imams, Muftis and mosque clerics who had always looked towards Riyadh for inspiration – both financial and religious – in a state of stunned silence. They still have not reacted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal_Khashoggi

Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi was born in Medina on 13 October 1958.[1][23] His grandfather, Muhammad Khashoggi, who was of Turkish origin (né Muhammed Halit Kaşıkçı), and originally from Kayseri,[24] married a Saudi Arabian woman and was personal physician to King Abdulaziz Al Saud, the founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.[25]

Jamal Khashoggi was the nephew of the high-profile Saudi Arabian arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, known for his part in the Iran–Contra scandal,[26][27] who was estimated to have had a net worth of US$4 billion in the early 1980s.[28][29] Jamal Khashoggi was also the first cousin of Dodi Fayed, who was the companion of Diana, Princess of Wales, when the couple were killed in a Paris car accident.[30]

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