Free Republic

JEDDAH, 16 January 2005 — Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, the Kingdom’s grand mufti, said the people who attack Islam accusing it of encouraging terrorism and extremism and denying human rights are telling lies and know very well they are spreading falsehood. Speaking at a conference organized by the Makkah-based Muslim World League on inter-culture dialogue, Al-Asheikh said critics of Islam are driven by their enmity of the faith. He called upon Muslims to project the true face of Islam without any excesses or compromises. “The accusations directed against Islam by those who accuse it of terrorism, extremism and disrespect for...

JEDDAH, 18 February 2004 — The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has arrested more than 200 Bangladeshi and Burmese workers as they celebrated Valentine’s Day in Mina. Al-Madinah Arabic newspaper said yesterday the workers contravened a fatwa issued recently by Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh by drinking and dancing in a tent camp they were charged with cleaning. The commission members found that 16 of them were drunk. The men, aged 16 to 28, were employed by a cleaning company to clear the camp after the end of Haj. The organizers of the...