DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
A prominent Saudi religious leader lashed out at al-Qaeda chief, Osama bin Laden, accusing him of "making terror a synonym for Islam" and calling on Muslim scholars to publicly denounce his crimes.
"What did we gain from destroying the entire peoples in Afghanistan and Iraq?," Sheikh Salman Bin Fahd al-Awda said in an interview with MBC's daily Ramadan religious program, Hajar Al-Zawya (Cornerstone).
"What's the point of turning countries like Morocco, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia to battlefields where no one feels safe anymore?" he added.
Al-Awda said true Muslim scholars and preachers should publicly denounce Bin Laden's crimes.
He noted that the September 11 attacks did nothing but wreak havoc and kill thousands of people, while true Muslim leaders have worked peacefully for thousands of years to lead people towards the path of Islam.
"Who is responsible for propagating ideas of infidelity and murder? Who made thousands of young men go to war, leaving widows and orphans behind? Who is held accountable for making terror a synonym for Islam? Now they say that Muslims kill whoever is not part of their religion."
Al-Awda said Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) refused to kill his enemies and always preached mercy and tolerance.
"Is Islam now about a bullet and a gun? Is the means becoming the aim?," he said.
Al-Awda was part of a Saudi Islamist opposition movement, comprised of academics and intellectual preachers, that came into being after the First Gulf War.
He was jailed for several years for criticizing Gulf states for their support of Western forces during the liberation of Kuwait.
He has taken a tough stance on terrorism in the name of Islam.
He strongly condemned the May 12, 2003 suicide attack in Riyadh that claimed the lives of 34 people, Saudis and foreigners, earning him the title of "coward" by al-Qaeda affiliates in Saudi Arabia.
Bin Laden last appeared in two videos earlier this month, his first since October 2004, when he had threatened new attacks against the United States just days before the U.S. presidential election.
(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid). |
