SAUDI ARABIA: LEADING SAUDI CLERIC SHEIKH ABDULRAHMAN AL-SUDEIS URGES MUSLIM PILGRIMS AT MECCA TO SHUN TERRORISM

Record ID: 189799

  • Title: SAUDI ARABIA: LEADING SAUDI CLERIC SHEIKH ABDULRAHMAN AL-SUDEIS URGES MUSLIM PILGRIMS AT MECCA TO SHUN TERRORISM
  • Date: 20th January 2005
  • Summary: (W3) MECCA, SAUDI ARABIA (JANUARY 20, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. SHEIKH ABDULRAHMAN AL-SUDEIS, STATE-APPOINTED PREACHER AT MECCA GRAND MOSQUE, PREACHING OVER VARIOUS IMAGES OF PILGRIMS AND SAYING BECAUSE MUSLIMS HAVE STRAYED FROM MODERATION THEY ARE NOW SUFFERING FROM A DANGEROUS PHENOMENON OF BRANDING PEOPLE AS INFIDELS AND INCITING OTHER MUSLIMS TO RISE AGAINST THEIR LEADERS WITH THE REASON FOR THIS BEING A VOID INTERPRETATION OF ISLAM BECAUSE ISLAM DOES NOT MEAN KILLING MUSLIMS AND NON MUSLIMS./ WIDE OF AL-SUDEIS SPEAKING (5 SHOTS) 3.01 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 4th February 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MECCA, SAUDI ARABIA
  • Country: Saudi Arabia
  • Reuters ID: LVA12Y27ILDRQVBLGXABZ7YNL9MT
  • Story Text: Cleric urges Muslim pilgrims to shun terrorism.



    A leading Saudi cleric warned Muslims on Thursday
    (January 20) against heeding militant calls to wage terror
    attacks in the name of Islam. Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Sudeis,
    the state-appointed preacher at the Grand Mosque in Mecca,
    told pilgrims in a sermon to mark the Muslim feast of Eid
    al-Adha that scholars must preach moderation to confront
    this "putrid" phenomenon.

    Militants were using "misguided and void"
    interpretations to justify violence, he said, in comments
    that came amid a surge in militant attacks in Muslim
    countries and beyond.

    "Because Muslims have strayed from moderation, we are
    now suffering from this dangerous phenomenon of branding
    people infidels and inciting Muslims to rise against their
    leaders to cause instability," Sudeis said.

    "The reason for this is a delinquent and void
    interpretation of Islam based on ignorance ... faith does
    not mean killing Muslims or non-Muslims who live among us,
    it does not mean shedding blood, terrorising or sending
    body parts flying."
    His sermon was dedicated to 2.5 million Muslims who are
    performing the haj pilgrimage in the kingdom, battling a
    campaign of violence by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al
    Qaeda network which has declared the pro-U.S. Saudi rulers
    apostates.

    The militants have targeted Westerners and government
    symbols with the aim of toppling the Saudi monarchy and
    ridding the birthplace of Islam of "infidel" non-Muslims.

    Saudi Arabia has deployed thousands of security forces
    in the holy sites to prevent possible attacks during the
    haj.

    In Iraq, Sunni Muslim insurgents, bent on disrupting a
    January 30 election, have intensified their attacks.

    Militants have also recently staged attacks in neighbouring
    Kuwait and Pakistan and Afghanistan which are also fighting
    al Qaeda.

    Sudeis warned Islamist extremism would ruin the Muslim
    nation, adding: "This phenomenon has expanded so much that
    scholars must confront it with concrete proof from Islam to
    protect our youth from its stench and putridness."
    Saudi Arabia practises Wahhabism, an austere form of
    Islam. Western governments and moderate clerics have said
    this brand of faith, which rules every aspect of daily
    life, was fomenting extremism.

    On Wednesday, the kingdom's top cleric, Grand Mufti
    Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, said Islam was
    under attack by the West which is equating the faith with
    "terrorism and backwardness".

    He urged Muslims to fight off these campaigns by
    showing the true nature of Islam.

    oy/

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