Abdul Rahman ibn Abdul Aziz al-Sudais (Arabic: عَبْدُ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ بْنُ عَبْدِ ٱلْعَزِيزِ ٱلسُّدَيْسِ, romanized: ʻAbd ar-Raḥman ibn ʻAbd al-ʻAziz as-Sudais), better known as al-Sudais,[1] is the Chief Imam of the Grand Mosque, Masjid al-Haram in Makkah, Saudi Arabia; the President of the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques;[2] a renowned Qāriʾ (reciter of the Qur'an);[3] he was the Dubai International Holy Qur'an Award's "Islamic Personality Of the Year" in 2005.

[4] Al-Sudais has preached Islam's opposition to "explosions and terrorism",[5][6] and has called for peaceful inter-faith dialogue,[7] but also been criticized for vilifying non-Muslims and especially Jews in his sermons.

[1] Sudais took up his imamate in 1984, at just 24-years of age, and conducted his first sermon at Masjid al-Haram in July 1984, other than this Sheikh Saud al-Shuraim - has been his partner in Taraweeh Prayers from 1994 till 2006, and again in 2014, 2019 and 2020.

He said the solution to problems that Muslims face in Palestine, Somalia, Iraq, Kashmir, Yemen and Afghanistan lies in following the teachings of Islam in letter and spirit.

[11] In a sermon on 13 November 2006, al-Sudais preached that the ongoing drought was caused by the proliferation of sin in Saudi society[13] and the behavior of women in the kingdom who allegedly were "unveiling, mingling with men, and being indifferent to the hijab.

In a sermon on Saudi state television, Sudais called for avoiding "passionate emotions and fiery enthusiasm" towards Jews, arguing the best way to persuade them towards Islam was to "treat them well".

[29] On 31 March 2015, an audio recording of al-Sudais was circulated online, accompanied by a photo with a caption stating "Imam of the grand mosque in Mecca calls for all-out war against Shiites."

The prophet said Rome will be conquered... Our disagreement with Rafidha [a derogatory term referring to Shia Muslims] will not be removed nor our suicide to fight them...as long as they are on the face of the earth...In view of these statements by al-Sudais, Ahmed Abdul Hussein, the editor-in-chief of an Iraqi news agency, stated, "Remember the date 3/31/2015, the day the Shiite-Sunni war was announced.

"[30][31] Following his 2002 speech, al-Sudais has been described as an anti-Semite[32][33] for publicly praying to God to ‘terminate’ the Jews, whom he called "the scum of humanity…the rats of the world…prophet killers…pigs and monkeys",[27][34][35] and as a result has been barred from conferences in the United States and been refused entry to Canada.

[27] In a May 2003 interview with NBC's Tim Russert, the foreign policy adviser to the Saudi crown prince, Adel al-Jubeir, confirmed Al-Sudais's statements, agreed that they were "clearly not right," and stated that he was reprimanded, but was still allowed to preach.

John Ware on the BBC program Panorama entitled "A Question of Leadership" from August 21, 2005, cited Al-Sudais referring to Christians as "cross-worshippers" and Hindus as "idol worshippers.

"[38] In August 2009, the Board of Deputies of British Jews protested a visit by al-Sudais to Britain in which he gave lectures at several mosques and attended an event with Tory MP Tony Baldry.