Saudi imams asked to serve country

Riyadh: The Governor of Madinah Region, Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Majid, has urged mosque imams and preachers to play a leading role in serving their society and country, and to ensure social security.

The governor made the remarks in his address to the gathering of mosque imams and preachers in the region here on Wednesday.

The function was also attended by the Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Shaikh Saleh Al Shaikh.

Prince Abdul Aziz cautioned imams against delivering monotonous and lengthy sermons.

"Friday sermons should be short, attractive, forceful and to the point," he said.

Shaikh Saleh stressed the same point.

"If we take the example of the Prophet's Friday sermon, we can see that its duration ranged between seven and ten minutes," he said.

The minister also underscored the need to uphold moderation as the core message to be conveyed at mosques.

Prince Abdul Aziz warned imams and preachers against misusing their role to incite extremism, hatred and create seeds of discord and cause disturbances.

"The Friday sermons should be confined to advise the faithful to hold fast to the religious principles.

He urged imams to safeguard the younger generation against being lured by those advocating extremism and deviant ideologies.

The meeting of imams and preachers was convened to help strengthen interaction between the Islamic Affairs Ministry and officials at mosques by exchanging views and opinions.

There are about 3,800 mosques in the Madinah region, where 5,000 imams, preachers and muezzin are employed.