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A 2017 video of Saudi Crown Prince MBS pledging to eradicate extremism and promote moderate Islam has resurfaced online, highlighting his efforts to modernize the kingdom and reshape its global image.
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman
UPDATED: Mar 6, 2025 23:15 IST
A 2017 video in which Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) is seen declaring he will eradicate Islamic extremism and promote moderate Islam, has resurfaced and gone viral on social media.
The clip, from the 2017 Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference, an international event at which Saudi Arabia seeks global investment, highlights MBS' commitment to transforming the kingdom's socio-religious landscape. .
"We want to destroy Islamic extremism and co-exist with other religions. We only want to go back to what we were: Moderate Islam that is open to the world, open to all religions. We will not waste 30 years of our lives in dealing with extremist ideas. We will destroy them today,” MBS said at the conference.
It is Saudi that funded extreme Islamism all over the world and it is Saudi that can dismantle it. I wish MBS a long life and many years of power to do so! pic.twitter.com/F9wqYruRYtShefali Vaidya. (@ShefVaidya) March 5, 2025
His remarks were met with applause and a front-page article in The Guardian newspaper in 2017. In expanded remarks to the paper, the Prince said that successive Saudi monarchs “didn’t know how to deal with” Iran’s 1979 revolution that brought to power a clerical Shiite leadership still in place today.
Since catapulting to power with the support of his father, the King, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has pushed changes to usher a new liberal era in the kingdom. He has introduced musical concerts and movies into Saudi Arabia's cultural landscape and is largely seen as the force behind the king’s decision to grant women the right to drive back in 2018.
Unlike previous Saudi monarchs, Prince Mohammed is, and has been, a conservative Saudi Arabia's quickest and most effective image makeover artist.
Published By:
indiatodayglobal
Published On:
Mar 6, 2025
