Saudi Arabia: Imam questions Medina ban

The imam of Islam’s first mosque, Qabbaa, has stirred public controversy with comments (accessible online) that according to Islamic teachings, non-Muslims are allowed to enter the holy city of Medina without restrictions; this is contrary to what is currently practiced. In an interview with the MBC satellite channel, Saleh Almoghamsy – who has almost 5m followers on Twitter – defended his position by saying the controversy was not caused by his statement but was rather due to a lack of knowledge among the general public regarding the Islamic view on the issue. “As far as I’m aware, there is no [Islamic scholarly] view that bans non-Muslims from entering Medina,” he told MBC.