The Islamic University of Madina has established a "Certainty Centre" to counter "atheistic and non-religious tendencies" in Saudi Arabia, Elaph website reports (in Arabic).

The Certainty Centre will monitor, analyse and refute atheistic thought, according to Elaph. It will develop "a variety of preventive programmes" addressed to "everyone", but its main focus seems to be "atheistic discourse directed at young people" and the aim will be to persuade them to "return to the right path".

This sounds rather similar to earlier programmes in Saudi Arabia and Yemen which sought to "reform" jihadists through dialogue rather than punishment.

The Certainty Centre will reportedly encourage atheists and those who have religious doubts to make contact through instant messaging or email. They will not be required to identify themselves, the report says.

From a religious viewpoint, this is quite a smart idea. Muslims with doubts about their faith are often found that scholars or clerics refused to discuss their doubts. During research for my recent book, Arabs Without God, several interviewees cited this as the first step on their road to disbelief. Being fobbed off with instructions never to ask such questions tended to prompt further exploration in private – which, rather than providing answers, only increased their doubts.

It remains to be seen, however, how many Saudis will take up the Certainty Centre's offer of confidential discussions about their atheistic thoughts. 

All Saudi citizens are officially classified as Muslims, so anyone who abandons religion is technically an apostate – and in Saudi Arabia apostasy is theoretically punishable by death. Earlier this year, "calling for atheist thought in any form" was also made a terrorist offence. So the Certainty Centre may well have an uphill struggle in persuading atheists to come forward.

There has been much agonising in the Saudi media about atheism recently – mainly because of a WIN/Gallup International poll in which 5% of those interviewed in the kingdom described themselves as "convinced" atheists. A further 19% said they were not religious.

This came as a shock to the Saudis because if the figures are accurate, it means almost a quarter of the population – in what is supposedly the most holy of Muslim countries – are non-believers or sceptics.

In Saudi Arabia, as in most other Arab countries, atheism is regarded as a social problem that needs to be addressed, rather than a legitimate point of view. There is also a tendency not to treat atheist ideas seriously and to explain them instead as a form of youthful rebellion.

One Saudi atheist who I interviewed for the book told me: “Many of my friends and family members think it is a phase that I’ll grow out of. But I am almost fifty years old.”