Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh says that extremism and the ideologies of groups like the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda are Islam's No. 1 enemy and that Moslems have been their first victims.He also said in his public statement that terrorism has no place in Islam.
| History and the Koran show otherwise, particularly the history of the Indian subcontinent. Not that a citizen of Arabia could be expected to know the history of the faraway Indian colonies. |
He cited Death Eaters from the Islamic State, which has declared itself a "caliphate" straddling large parts of Iraq and Syria, and the Al-Qaeda network, saying their brutal actions have tarnished the image of the divine Islamic faith.
| "Never have Muslims in England cut off the head of an unbeliever, after all." "... except those Nigerian-English converts and that British soldier in broad daylight on the high street, Grand Mufti. But they only killed him, not being practiced in head-cutting." "Oh. Never mind, then." |
| Where tolerance refers to being a true Wahabi, and moderation ditto. |
"In the circumstances the Islamic nation is living through, several countries have been destabilized" by bad boys, who divide Moslems in the name of religion, the mufti said.
| Commensurate with fourteen hundred years of history, Grand Mufti. Where now are the great Roman colonies of North Africa, the Eastern Roman empire of Byzantium, the Hindu and Sikh kingdoms of India, the Jewish trading tribes of Arabia? |
"The conflicts outside our borders should not divide us," the mufti said, stressing the importance of dialogue to narrow differences of opinion on various matters.
He warned: "In Islam, after heresy, dividing Moslems is the greatest crime."
He urged tolerance, "which is at the root of Islam's growth and longevity."
| "We here in the Arabia of the House of Saud tolerate all the heretics who come to spend their money on pilgrimage, even the ultimate heretics, the Shiites. We don't tolerate their heretical Korans, though." |
| ISIS apparently has something like 65,000 members and growing -- it's hard to tell, as they won't hold still long enough for accuracy, and jihadis are notorious for an inability to count above five (can't use the left hand for such things, after all) -- which is not exactly a handful, your Custodianness. |