Cinema makes low-key Saudi return, angers critics

RIYADH (Reuters) - Cinema has made a low-key return to Saudi Arabia after a three decade absence but a sharp reaction by the religious police chief shows efforts to relax Saudi's strict Islamic laws face tough opposition.

A locally-produced comedy "Menahi" premiered in two cultural centers in Jeddah and Taif this month before mixed-gender audiences, a taboo in Saudi Arabia whose strict Islamic rules ban unrelated men and women from mixing.

Turnout for the movie, produced by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's media company Rotana, was so big the film had to played eight times a day over a 10-day period, the organizers said.

The viewing was the latest attempt to introduce reforms by King Abdullah, who has said the world's largest oil exporter cannot stand still while the world changes around it.

Political analysts say Alwaleed could not have gone ahead with the projection without the blessing of royals with key decision-making roles.

And while the kingdom's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al al-Shaikh has not commented on the issue, the head of Saudi Arabia's religious police condemned cinemas as a pernicious influence on filmgoers.

"Our position on this is clear -- ban it. That is because cinema is evil and we do not need it. We have enough evil already," said Ibrahim al-Ghaith, the head of the religious police, whose official title is the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

Al-Ghaith is the kingdom's second most influential cleric and his comments were widely carried by Saudi newspapers on Saturday. Local media have devoted little coverage to the film, a decision interpreted by some here as an attempt to avoid antagonizing the powerful religious establishment.

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