A revolution in Saudi Arabia!....

KAUST is the first coeducational university in Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah has banned the Kingdom's much feared religious police - the mutaween - from entering its grounds. For the first time, there is a part of Saudi society where their authority does not reach.

.... In addition to being fully coeducational women are also allowed to drive and remove their headscarves on campus. Freemixing between the sexes will similarly be encouraged - something that can still land you in jail elsewhere in the Kingdom! Classes will also be delivered in English. [Standpoint] Read more

Saudi king sacks cleric for attack on his university King Abdullah, the Saudi monarch, has dimissed a senior Muslim cleric after he described a new university that will teach male and female students together as 'evil'.

.... Sheikh Saad al-Shethri was "relieved" of his duties on the influential Council of Religious Scholars, according to state television. He had described the new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology as a "great sin" and had demanded that fellow scholars vet the curriculum to be taught at the flagship institution, which opened near Jeddah last month. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more