RIYADH: Saudi Arabia, waging a crackdown on Islamist militants, has released 1,500 extremists after they repented, a newspaper said on Sunday.

The 1,500 were among 3,200 militants with whom a government-appointed “advice committee” met around 5,000 times since it was formed three years ago, Al-Watan said, quoting committee member Mohammad al-Nujaimi.

The paper did not clarify if the rest had refused to renounce the ideology of “takfeer” — branding other Muslims as infidels in order to legitimise violence against them.The ideology is espoused by militants who advocate the use of force to overthrow regimes deemed corrupt or unrepresentative and to establish a global Islamic state.

Nujaimi said the 1,500 militants who changed their views had renounced Saudi-born Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's call on his followers to “cleanse the Arabian Peninsula of polytheists.”

The advice committee comprises more than 100 Islamic scholars, preachers and experts in sharia, or Islamic law, in addition to 30 psychologists and social workers, the paper said.

—AFP