Roman Catholic bishops in Germany and Austria responded sharply to his fatwa, concerned about the human rights of non-Muslims working in the Persian Gulf region.

[6] Mehmet Görmez, the most senior imam in Turkey, blasted Al Sheikh's call to "destroy all the churches" in the Persian Gulf region, saying that the announcement totally contradicted the peaceful teachings of Islam.

[9] In June 2013, Al Sheikh issued a fatwa demanding the destruction of statues of horses placed in a roundabout in Jizan:[10] "The sculptures [must] be removed because they are a great sin and are prohibited under Sharia".

[13] On 25 September 2015, one day after the Mina crowd crush disaster which (according to the Associated Press) killed at least 1,399 foreign Muslims performing Hajj, Al Sheikh publicly told Muhammad bin Nayef, then-Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, that he was "not responsible for what happened", and "as for the things that humans cannot control, you are not blamed for them.

[14] In January 2016, while answering a question on a television show in which he issues fatwas in response to viewers' queries on everyday religious matters, Al Sheikh ruled that chess was forbidden in Islam because it constituted gambling, was a waste of time and money and a cause of hatred and enmity between the players.