Saudi cleric fired for advocating mixing of sexes
— AP: “The head of Saudi Arabia’s powerful religious police has fired the chief of the Mecca branch for advocating the mixing of the sexes, an official from the force said Tuesday.”
— “Ahmed bin Qassim al-Ghamidi’s suggestion in a newspaper interview this week that men and women should be left to mingle freely directly clashed with a central preoccupation of the force.”

Saudi Gazette – April 6, 2010: “Segregation of sexes: Hai’a chief stands by his comment”
— “Ahmed Qassim Al-Ghamdi, the head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Hai’a) in Makkah, has said he will not go back on his previous comments on the segregation of the sexes, and described opposition to his views from within his own organization as disgruntled individuals trying to ‘get their own back’.”
— “With a notable security presence and an audience of both sexes, Al-Ghamdi addressed the Taif Literary Club Sunday on a series of sensitive topics, although questions put to him concerning his views on segregation were blocked by the chairman and any attempt to broach the subject from other angles was quickly put paid to.”
— “Al-Ghamdi said, however, that the policy was not of his making.”
— “‘I didn’t ask the club to bar the subject or any questions on it from discussion,” Al-Ghamdi told Okaz. ‘You can write in the newspaper from my own mouth that I still hold to the view I expressed on ikhtilat, and I won’t go back on it, and I’ll continue to repeat what I wrote.'”
— “In an interview reported by Saudi Gazette last December Al-Ghamdi spoke at length on the subject of the mixing of sexes – “ikhtilat” – in which he described it in the current usage as ‘a recent adoption unknown to the early people of knowledge’.”
— “‘Mixing used to be part of normal life for the Ummah and its societies,’ he said, adding that the word ‘in its contemporary meaning has entered customary jurisprudential terminology from outside’.”
— “‘Those who prohibit ikhtilat cling to weak ahadith, while the correct ahadith prove that mixing is permissible, contrary to what they claim,’ Al-Ghamdi said.”
— “The Sheikh revealed, however, that among those who opposed his views were some Hai’a officials who he had previously ‘punished for administrative irregularities’.”
— “‘Their response was a form of vengeance. They were trying to stir trouble and get their own back,’ he said, believing them to have seen the interview as a ‘provocation’ and a chance to take revenge for being punished. “Some of them were extremists in thought, something which we won’t accept in the Hai’a,” he said.”
December 11, 2009 – Saudi Gazette: Hai’a chief: Kaust an ‘extraordinary move and huge accomplishment’
— “The head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Makkah has added his voice of support to the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust) and addressed the issue of “ikhtilat” – the mixing of the sexes – that has prompted numerous scholars and commentators to speak out in recent months.”
— “‘The term ‘ikhtilat’ in this usage is a recent adoption that was unknown to the early people of knowledge,’ Sheikh Ahmed Al-Ghamdi said in a lengthy interview with Okaz.”
— “‘Mixing was part of normal life for the Ummah and its societies.'”
— “‘The word in its contemporary meaning has entered customary jurisprudential terminology from outside,’ Al-Ghamdi said.”
— “‘Those who prohibit the mixing of the genders actually live it in their real lives, which is an objectionable contradiction, as every fair-minded Muslim should follow Shariah judgments without excess or negligence,’ Al-Ghamdi said.”
— “‘In many Muslim houses – even those of Muslims who say mixing is haram – you can find female servants working around unrelated males,’ he said.”

December 16, 2009 – Saudi Gazette: Makkah Hai’a head rumored to face dismissal over interview