The powerful crown prince of Saudi Arabia promised Tuesday to abandon the kingdom's extreme brand of Islam that has inspired terrorists around the world, including the 9/11 jihadists, in a fundamental religious shakeup in the historic cradle of the Muslim world, according to Breitbart.

"We are returning to what we were before — a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world," Prince Mohammed bin Salman told an economic forum in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.

"We will not spend the next 30 years of our lives dealing with destructive ideas. We will destroy them today," he said. "We will end extremism very soon."

The 32-year-old crown prince will succeed 81-year-old King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud, when he dies or abdicates the throne. The king chose his son to replace his nephew, Mohammed bin Nayef, as crown prince in a surprise move in June, according to NPR.

The new crown prince already is seen as a reformer, who is believed to have persuaded the king to lift the ban on Saudi women driving last month.

In the 1970s, Saudi Arabia began promoting a fundamentalist form of Islam known as Wahhabism, which applied a strict interpretation of the Koran with extreme punishments such as decapitation and amputations for crimes. As the birthplace of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Saudi Arabia exerts great influence among Muslims.

Wahhabism, named for 18th-century cleric Mohammed Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, also inspired terrorists with calls to kill Christians, Jews and others who reject Islam, according to HuffPost.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States were Saudis.

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