DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Dispatches) — Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, Saudi Arabia’s longtime grand mufti and the kingdom’s top cleric for over two decades, died Tuesday in Riyadh. 
He was in his 80s. While he denounced militant groups like Daesh and Al-Qaeda, his tenure was marked by deeply controversial and often extremist views that reinforced Saudi Arabia’s hardline Wahhabi interpretation of Islam and fueled sectarian and religious intolerance.
Appointed in 1999 by King Fahd, Sheikh Abdulaziz served as grand mufti during a period of sweeping change in the kingdom.  
Blinded in youth, he rose through the ranks of the religious establishment, becoming a leading voice of Wahhabism — an austere form of religion that shaped Saudi society for generations. He once condemned mobile phone cameras as tools for “spreading vice”. He had also previously ruled that girls as young as 10 could be married and labeled chess “haram” — or religiously forbidden — comparing it to gambling.
His views on non-Muslims and Shia Muslims drew widespread condemnation. In 2012, he reportedly said it was “necessary to destroy all the churches of the region” in response to a question about Christianity in Kuwait. 
After the 2015 Hajj disaster, where more than 2,400 pilgrims died, he dismissed criticism from Iran’s Supreme Leader by declaring that Shias “are not Muslims” but “descendants of Majuws.”
Though he publicly denounced takfiri groups as misguided, many critics say his rigid teachings contributed to a broader climate of intolerance in the kingdom. While his influence diminished under Crown Prince Muhammad’s reform campaign, his legacy remains tied to the institutionalization of ultraconservative dogma in Saudi society.