Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah relieved Culture and Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja of his post by royal decree and replaced him with Bandar bin Mohammed Asaad Hajjar, an economist and Saudi Arabia’s Hajj Minister.
Although an Arab News headline said that Culture and Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja “quit,” media outlets are speculating that the Khoja was actually fired.
Abdul Aziz Khoja was relieved of his leadership position by Royal Decree.
Before being relieved, Khoja “announced that he had ordered the closure of the Wesal television channel in Riyadh,” saying, “This is essentially not a Saudi channel.” However, little evidence has been presented in media reports that the ouster has anything to do with Khoja’s ordering of the Wesal station to be closed, or other comments that he made on Twitter about the recent sectarian violent attack that has rattled Saudis.
According to a report in Al Jazeera, Khaled al-Maeena, editor-at-large of the Saudi Gazette, said Khoja was not dismissed but left for health reasons and advancing age.
It is unknown if Khoja, second from right, was fired or quit for health reasons.
It is uncertain if the Saudi government will continue with the shut down of Wesal TV. According to Arabian Business, Wesal TV “has long been accused of broadcasting programs against Shi’ite Muslims…[t]he channel often described Shi’ites as “rejectionists,” a pejorative label which dates back to the seventh century schism between Sunni and Shi’ite Islam.”
