Saudi cleric calls for destruction of Grand Mosque in Mecca

A hardline Saudi cleric, Youssef al-Ahmed, has called for the Grand Mosque in Mecca (which houses the Kaaba, the holiest site in Islam) to be destroyed!

The problem is that when Muslims go to Mecca to touch and circle the holy rock, men and women are there together. Even though this has been the status quo for decades or centuries, apparently that is not good enough. So to avoid the chance that something terrible would happen, al-Ahmed is proposing to destroy the mosque and replace it with a series of smaller structures that can allow the separation of the sexes.

al-Ahmed apparently put his opinion on YouTube. He claims that other clerics have called for the same action in years past.

He is no stranger to controversy and is not necessarily taken too seriously by the Saudis at large, but he does have a following.