Saudi journalist overpraising King Salman punished

Baku. 3 July. REPORT.AZ/ A Saudi columnist has been suspended after he went too far in praise of the country's leader, King Salman.

Report informs citing the BBC, Ramadan al-Anzi's column in al-Jazirah newspaper lauded the monarch using attributes reserved for Allah.

And while effusive praise of the king is customary - and even expected - comparisons to deities are frowned upon in Saudi Arabia.

The newspaper had already published an apology for Friday's column, in which Mr Anzi described King Salman as "Haleem", or forbearing, and "Shadeed al-Eqab", both phrases reserved for Allah.

The epithet " Haleem " in Islam is considered one of the 99 names of Allah, " Shadeed al-Eqab " though not included in this list, but it is considered a traditional epithet describing the deity. On Islamic ethics both epithets are extremely undesirable to apply to people.

The Saudi newspaper Al-Jazeera has nothing to do with the same-name Qatari TV channel and media holding.

According to local media, King Salman himself was outraged by the laudatory text. He shared his dissatisfaction with the Minister of Information and the columnist was suspended from work.