As Saudi Arabia touts the diplomatic breakthrough that ended its three-year spat with neighboring Qatar, the kingdom continues to silence a prominent cleric who called for rapprochement. 

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt reached a landmark agreement this week to ease a rift dating to their June 2017 boycott of Doha. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who greeted Qatar’s ruling emir with a hug this week, praised the deal as one that will strengthen regional stability and security. 

“My father’s call — that these two leaders get together for the best interest of their peoples — finally was answered,” said Saudi legal scholar Abdullah Aloudh. “But it’s so ironic that so many people who were caught up in this fight are still in prison."

His father, Salman Aloudah, a popular reformist preacher with a large social media following, is among them. “May Allah mend their hearts for the best of their peoples,” Aloudah wrote to his 14 million Twitter followers in September 2017. (The English spellings of the last names of Aloudah and his son vary slightly).