Author: Paul Martin
Publication: The Washington Times
Date: June 3, 2002
URL: http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020603-1336256.htm
Saudi Arabia's top Muslim cleric
has called on the Islamic world to unite against a worldwide conspiracy
of Hindus, Christians, Jews and secularists threatening Islamic moral values.
Muslims, he said, should cleanse
themselves from creeping Western values and American-controlled "globalization."
In a television address monitored
here, Sheik Abd-al-Rahman al-Sudays, the imam of the Mosque of Mecca, Islam's
holiest shrine, turned his ire on the followers of India's dominant religion
as tension mounted between that country and mainly Muslim Pakistan.
"The idol-worshipping Hindus indulge
in their open hatred against our brothers and sanctities in Muslim Kashmir,
threatening an imminent danger and a fierce war in the whole Indian subcontinent,"
he said in a live sermon heard throughout the Arab world via the official
Saudi national television and satellite channel.
The linkage of Hinduism with the
sort of invective normally reserved for Jews and the supporters of Israel
- together with scathing remarks about Christians - made the speech unusual.
Since Saudi Arabia's leaders exercise
tight control on their media and on their government-appointed imams, their
comments - especially from Mecca and on the main television channel - are
seen as indicators of the government's views.
The imam lashed out with thinly
veiled invective against the United States, with which Saudi Arabia has
close economic and military ties. He contrasted the "sublime" truths of
Islam with the supporters of "fake globalization that wastes human values
and ideals," an apparent reference to the West in general and the United
States in particular.
Though he was particularly scornful
of Jews, whom he said had been cursed and turned into "pigs and monkeys"
by Allah, he turned his ire on Christians and capitalists as well.
"Their course is supported by the
advocates of credit and worshippers of the Cross," the imam asserted, "as
well as by those who are infatuated with them and influenced by their rotten
ideas and poisonous culture among the advocates of secularism and Westernization."
The imam prefaced his remarks with
a warning to his own people not to become confused by modernity. "The nation
has never been in such a dire need to follow the example of the prophet
in this age of tribulations, sedition, open challenges and mean plotting
by the enemies of Islam," Sheikh al-Sudays said.
Leaders of former communist countries
also came under attack, especially in zones where Muslims have taken up
arms.
"The enemies of Muslims among the
atheists insist on their arrogance and aggression against our people and
sanctities in struggling Chechnya," declared the imam.
He concluded with a prayer for God
to support Islam and Muslims, to humble the infidels, destroy the enemies
of religion, and make his and other Muslim countries peaceful and stable.
He went on: "Oh God, support our
brother mujahideen in Palestine, Kashmir and Chechnya. Oh God, we ask you
to support our Palestinian brothers in Palestine against the aggressor
Jews and usurper Zionists.
