For Saudis, a hard fight over faith

They're not Felix and Oscar, although they are a somewhat odd couple. One is a bit impish. He looks like a young Omar Sharif, and sports a Vandyke beard - like Robert DeNiro, his favorite movie star.

The other looks more scholarly. He wears wire-rimmed glasses, and is extremely serious - his favorite philosopher is Nietzsche.

The two, however, have similar backgrounds and goals. Khalid al-Ghannami and Mansour al-Nogaidan were once subversive sheikhs, religious leaders espousing the same tenets as Osama bin Laden and his acolytes.

But they both embarked on spiritual journeys - separately - and now embrace a more moderate, inclusive view of Islam, and act as the most outspoken public boosters of religious reform in Saudi Arabia.

In fact, they made 180-degree turns from far right to left, and now say they want a broad reformation of Islam, something akin to what they say John Calvin or Martin Luther kicked off in Christianity. That's no small quest in any part of the Muslim world, much less Saudi Arabia. The birthplace of Islam, Saudi Arabia adheres to a branch of the religion known to many people as Wahhabism, as well as tribal cul tural traditions. The struggle over how to interpret Islampolitically is not only important for Saudi Arabia, but for many foreign countries that receive billions of dollars in aid from Saudi Arabia - for building mosques, supplying Korans, and teaching their brand of Islam.

Wahhabism has led many Muslims to support and evem join jihadist groups from Asia to Europe and the US, according to several government officials. And changing the ideology that supports and advocates the use of violence is crucial to eliminating terror attacks, like those perpetrated by Al Qaeda.

That these two sheikhs are now free - to a certain extent - to speak out, is testament to changes thanks in no small part to the May and November suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia.

Since those attacks, particularly the Nov. 8 attack that targeted the Muhaya compound where mostly Arabs lived - and died - the Saudi government has acknowledged that it has a problem with religious extremists.

It has created a public dialogue on these thorny issues within society, and has vowed to reform or remove those clerics who promote extremism or advocate the use of violence.

"A dialogue between scholars has been going on for a long time ... but now it has become an open thing," says Abdulrahman al-Matrodi, deputy minister for Islamic Affairs. "We have people who have been in the West, and they got more information, and maybe [have] more open minds than others who have not left. But you will not find them working against their country or their religion. They would like their religion [so] that they can follow the religion and still be modern."

This is no small task, of course, in a country that has at least 50,000 mosques and as many clerics. Not to mention the muttawaeen, feared religious police.

Moreover, the ruling family and conservative religious leaders have closely collaborated since the founding of this country.

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