Saudi minister: Call me Abu Mohammed

Saudi Arabia’s new education minister Azzam Al Dakheel surprised journalists and guests who came to greet him on his new job when he asked them to call him Abu Mohammed, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

Sada Arabic language daily published a film showing the minister is surrounded by a large crowd of citizens and journalists, who kept addressing him as “your Excellency.”

“Please call me Abu Mohammed,” the minister told them on his first day at the ministry as he adjusted his traditional Saudi head gear.

Sada said Al Dakheel, who was named education minister in a cabinet shake-up ordered by Saudi Arabia’s new King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, appeared “so modest and self-confident”, adding that this modesty reflects “a spirit of interaction with the people.”