ICC Note:  Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) continues to push for major reforms within the country. The latest involves a significant cabinet change that focuses on culture and religion. The new culture minister became famous last year when he purchased a painting of Jesus. The new Islamic minister previously served as head of the country’s morality police and is a descendent of the founders of Wahhabism. However, this cabinet reshuffle does nothing to protect the religious freedom of its citizens.

06/05/2018 Saudi Arabia (The Straits Times) –  Saudi Arabia has announced another Cabinet reshuffle with a heavy focus on culture and religion, as the kingdom undergoes a major image overhaul.

This is the second significant government change since the appointment of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, son of the king, as heir to the region’s most powerful throne.

The Crown Prince serves as deputy prime minister under his father, King Salman.

State news agency SPA announced last Saturday that King Salman had replaced the country’s labour and Islamic affairs ministers – and named a prince linked to the purchase of a Leonardo da Vinci painting of Jesus as culture minister.

Saudi Arabia for decades has combined its culture and information ministries.

The decree announced that the culture ministry was now a separate entity under Prince Badr bin Abdullah, the man named by the New York Times as the mystery buyer of Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi for a record-breaking US$450 million (S$602 million) at an auction last year.

The Wall Street Journal later reported that he was acting on behalf of Prince Mohammed. The Louvre Abu Dhabi has said the religious painting was “acquired” by the Emirati authorities and would be put on display there.

Non-Muslim worship is banned in Saudi Arabia, but the kingdom has hosted high-ranking Christian clerics in recent months, notably from Lebanon and France.

Mr Ahmed bin Suleiman al-Rajhi, an engineer and private sector businessman, was on Saturday named labour and social development minister.

Sheikh Abdullatif bin Abdulaziz Al-Sheikh was named the new Islamic affairs minister.

Prince Mohammed, who has steadily consolidated his grip on power since sidelining his cousin as crown prince last June, has spearheaded a string of policy changes in ultraconservative Saudi Arabia, including reinstating cinemas and allowing women to drive.

Often referred to by his initials, MBS, the prince pledged a “moderate, open” Saudi Arabia in a televised keynote speech in October, telling international investors his country wanted “to live a normal life.”

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