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Posted on 02/01/2004 12:03:43 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez
MOUNT ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia's top cleric called on Muslims around the world Saturday to forsake terrorism, saying those who claim to be holy warriors were an affront to the faith.
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In a sermon that was remarkable not only for its strong language but also its timing — at the peak of the annual hajj — Sheik Abdul Aziz al-Sheik told 2 million pilgrims that terrorists were giving their enemies an excuse to criticize Muslim nations.
"Is it holy war to shed Muslim blood? Is it holy war to shed the blood of non-Muslims given sanctuary in Muslim lands? Is it holy war to destroy the possessions of Muslims?" he asked.
A large number of the victims of suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq (news - web sites) and elsewhere have been been Muslims.
Al-Sheik, who is widely respected in the Arab world as the foremost cleric in the country considered the birthplace of Islam, spoke at Namira Mosque in a televised sermon watched by millions of Muslims in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.
The mosque is close to Mount Arafat, where the pilgrims converged Saturday for the climax of their annual trek. This year's hajj has been carried out amid heightened security after a year of terror attacks in the kingdom.
In speaking of terrorists who killed fellow Muslims, al-Sheik was clearly referring to the Prophet Muhammad's final sermon, delivered on Mount Arafat 14 centuries ago.
It contained the line: "Know that every Muslim is a Muslim's brother, and the Muslims are brethren. Fighting between them should be avoided."
Al-Sheik also criticized the international community, accusing it of attacking Wahhabism, the sect whose strict interpretation of Islam is followed in Saudi Arabia.
"This country is based on this religion and will remain steadfast on it," he said.
"Islam forbids all forms of injustice, killing without just cause, treachery ... hijacking of planes, boats and transportation means," he said.
Saudi Arabia came under Western pressure after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens.
The Saudi government conducted a crackdown on extremist groups after suicide bombers attacked housing compounds inhabited by foreigners in May. Saudi and U.S. officials blamed the attack, and a similar suicide bombing in November, on groups linked to al-Qaida, which is led by the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden (news - web sites).
On Thursday, suspected terrorists shot dead six Saudi security personnel in a shootout in a house in suburban Riyadh.
In total last year, bombings in Saudi Arabia killed 51 people, including eight Americans. Saudi and U.S. officials have blamed the bin Laden's al-Qaida network. Bin Laden is a Saudi exile.
U.S. officials have been encouraging Saudis to crack down on financing for terrorism via religious charities and curtail teaching of religious extremism in schools as well as mount a campaign to undercut popular support al-Qaida.
Liberal intellectuals in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait also called for such revisions in the teaching of Islam in schools and mosques.
Governments in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan have taken steps toward purging school books of terms offensive to other religions, and reformers argue that change should start by lessening the religious grip on education.
Al-Sheik warned against "changing the religion's basics" in school curricula.
"The minds of youth in the Islamic nation need to be shielded with Islamic sharia (law) and good manners and deeds. The nation's future generations will only be reformed by what reformed the past generations," he said.
Pilgrim Mustafa al-Shawwaf, a Canadian of Syrian origin, said he agreed that terrorists had tarnished Islam. He criticized Muslim fundamentalists, including the Wahhabis, for practicing an exclusive form of the faith.
"Such rigidity of thought needs to be changed," he said.
The pilgrims arrived at Mount Arafat in the early hours of Saturday. Worshippers of all ages and origins, moving slowly, shoulder-to-shoulder, shaded themselves from the sun with white umbrellas, chanting in unison "at thy service, at thy service, oh God."
Emergency workers directed the crowd as it converged 12 miles southwest of Mecca, in a ritual believed to represent the Day of Judgment, when Islam says every person will stand before Allah, or God, and answer for his deeds.
Temperatures approached 86 degrees. The sunshine made parasols a popular purchase at $1.30 each, and street vendors sold fruit, prayer mats and drinks. Along the path to Mount Arafat, sprinklers mounted on poles cooled worshippers. Free water and milk were handed out.
"This is the worst day for the devil, when he sees thousands of Muslims gathered in such a show of force and piety," said Egyptian Abdel Aziz al-Jezairi.
Fatima Farouk, a Nigerian, said that despite the demanding journey, she was thrilled "because after Mount Arafat, you're almost promised heaven."
No, you have attacked Christianity, or at least threaten to do so, while saying you were a Christian, that makes us hold you to a higher standard of actually knowing of what you speak.
Obviously you do not, and are not a Christian, but just another Moslem liar. Thats ok, Moslems lie. But the only one condeming you to hell is yourself, and that also is ok, because ultimately that is who always condems a man to hell, himself.
Any Moslem that does what his Q'uran says is a jihadist, for the Q'uran calls all faithful Moslems to do so. Those who do not are about as much Moslem as you are Christian. That ultimatly is the difference isn't it? A "Moderate Moslem" is not one.
Besides it is not against the Q'uran to use infidels to attack other infidels, so the fact that the Kuaiti government sided with the US in kicking out Saddam is hardly a good example. Pakistan did not side with us, they were made an offer they could not refuse. Their nukes vs ours, DRAW, PARTNER.
I know it might seem like a small point to Mad Mo's FR shills, but there it is.
Har Har har, there are a million Moslem's within an hours drive of my house and 80% of their CHILDREN believe it is better to be a human Bomb than to live. So don't feed me that horse pucky.
So, somewhere along the way, YOUR interpretation of their beliefs must be wrong.
As I am in a place the Jihad is in active phase, it is pretty easy to interpret their actions, I do not have to read the Q'uran to do so. Their actions are as plain as a smoking, bloody city bus. But I have read the Q'uran, and I do not have to "interpret" it is there in black and white.
As far as Christians not believing in slaughtering people in the name of God....do you REALLY want to go there?
Ah, a delecate, but telling shift in your stance. You now want to find Wahabbists in Christianity to defame the religion, while trying to stay away from the Q'uran. But, my friend you are on very bad ground. You cannot stand on the Q'uran, as you know what it says, you cannot stand on the Clerics of the Religion as they know what it says, and you cannot stand on the actions of the religion as 911 spoke very clearly. Just what, pray tell are you going to stand on? Your personal feelings that 90% of Moslems are peacefull, despite polls indicating quite the opposite? Hard to do since the "peaceful" Moslems have a border war on every border they have including most borders with Moslems.
Me thinks you are wishfully thinking you were not a Moslem about now. You could reconsider, just don't tell your Moslem "friends". They will have to kill you, you know. Moslem friends are like that, its an Allah thing.
Before this new WW is over, we may have to do the same to our new evil enemies.
I was just reading something about that on Daniel Pipe's site.
"AS we know, most muslims don't even read the Koran."
Because there are very many that CAN'T read, so they are taught from childhood by radical clerics via repetitive recitation of probably the same verses posted here. Wahabbism and Khomeinism calls itself "fundamentalism", but in reality, it promote an interpretation of Islam that has never quite existed prior to the 20th Century.
But all that is not even the point.
The point is that we have a very specific problem in a very specific area of the world, it's a geopolitical issue, not an ideological one.
These "fundamentalists" are fighting against the secularizing effects of Western civilization because it weakens their political power in the region, and they know that they can't win a "hot" war against the West, so they use religious extremism supported by illiteracy as a weapon, in an attempt at escalating the issue into a clash of religions.
I don't have a Muslim problem in my hands, I have a Syrian/Iranian/Saudi/Iraqi/Libyan/Somalian one.
And for sure, we'll be labeled as inhuman and accused of perpertrating a worse Holocaust than what our enemies had planned for us. So be it. We've proven that we can fight fire with fire, with true peace as the net result.
Nagasaki today
1) Use terrorism only against Jews, not other Muslims
2) No executions on Fridays
3) When stoning adulterers, throw only pebbles
4) At flight school, agree to pay for lessons on taking off and landing planes also
5) Agree to pay George Lucas copyright fees for using Darth Vader costume to dress wives and daughters
6) Announce that female suicide bombers get rewarded with 72 virgin males
7) Expand Saudi royal family by another 1000 people, to ensure fewer poor Arabs among the total 100 million
8) When capturing Christian Sudanese slaves, use comfortable rope
9) When buying Christian slaves, make sure to give the trader a fair price
10) Permit women to drive hunchbacks and compacts, but not other cars.
Where exactly?
What's the common denominator, LG?
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