Saudi Arabia ramps up anti-Brotherhood drive
Worshippers warned against banned group’s dangers in mosque lectures
Cairo: Saudi Islamic authorities have initiated a string of mosque lectures to make worshippers aware of dangers posed by the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
The lectures, part of a stepped-up awareness campaign against the Islamist group, are planned in different parts of the kingdom.
Several preachers are due to give such lectures in the holy city of Medina, according to the news portal Sabq.
The lectures are part of awareness activities carried out by the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs across the kingdom to make people aware of dangers of militant and terrorist groups, the paper said.
Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia’s top Islamic institution, the Senior Scholars Councils, condemned the Brotherhood and designated it as a terrorist group.
“The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist group that does not represent the Islamic course, but follows its partisan goals that contradicts the guidance of our lofty religion,” the council said in a statement.
“Since its establishment [in 1928], it has not shown any care for the Islamic creed or disciplines of the Holy Quran and the Prophet’s [PBUH] Sunnah. Rather, its ultimate aim is to reach power. Therefore, the group’s history is full of evils and seditions. It has also given birth to radical and terrorist groups that have wrought havoc with violence and terrorism,” the council added.
In 2014, Saudi Arabia outlawed the Brotherhood, listing it as a terror organisation. In late 2013, the group was banned in Egypt, its birthplace, after a spate of violent attacks unleashed in the country following the Islamist group’s removal from power after massive street protests against its divisive rule.