Haram Imaams denounce terrorist attacks

The imams of the two holy mosques in Makkah and Madeenah yesterday denounced recent terrorist attacks in the Kingdom and said the terrorists were playing in the hands of Islam’s enemies. “Our hearts tremble… from these criminal acts in Riyadh, from what followed in Yanbu… because they claimed sacred lives,” said Dr. Osama Khayyat, an […]

Makkah Imaam takes US to task on Iraq

The imam at the Grand Mosque in Makkah yesterday lambasted the United States and its allies in Iraq for double-speak. “Although they claim they are the advocates of reform and freedom, they are in fact the forces of destruction and devastation,” Sheikh Saud Al-Shuraim said in an apparent reference to the US-led occupation forces in […]

Grand Mufti: ‘Crush terror mercilessly’

Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti yesterday reiterated Islam’s total opposition to terror and called upon the world’s decision-makers and politicians to do justice to the Islamic nation. Delivering his annual sermon to nearly two million pilgrims who had assembled on the plain of Arafat, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh emphasized that terror and violence must be “mercilessly” […]

Council of Senior Scholars back Government crackdown on terrorists

Source: Arab News The Kingdom’s highest Islamic authority yesterday denounced terror attacks in the Kingdom, describing them as “serious criminal acts,” and pledged its full support for the government. “Acts of sabotage such as bombings, murder and destruction of property are serious criminal acts and an aggression against innocent people… which warrant severe and deterrent […]

Many imaams, muezzins sacked

Source: Arab News In what was described as a move against imaam’s “whose performance level has gone down,” Minister of Islamic Affairs Sheikh Saleh Al-Sheikh has fired a substantial number of imams and muezzins. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by the minister and attended by the heads of the central committees responsible […]