The sermon of the Imam of the Great Mosque of Mecca, Sheikh Abd al-Rahman al-Sudais, calling for tolerance of Jews, sparked widespread controversy on social media, amid an Israeli celebration of it.
Social media users circulated excerpts from the sermon of Al-Sudais, which sparked controversy as many questioned the purpose of his reference to dealing with Jews in Islam.
Israeli journalist Eddie Cohen expressed his joy at Al-Sudais sermon.
Al-Sudais’ sermon came after Saudi Arabia announced, last Wednesday, its approval of the UAE’s request to allow the passage of flights coming to and from all countries, including Israel, though the Saudi airspace which began launching flights to the UAE a few days ago against the backdrop of an agreement between the two countries.
US President Donald Trump and a number of officials in his country, most notably his advisor Jared Kushner, expected, in several press statements, that Saudi Arabia would normalize its relationship with Israel after the UAE.
Kushner said, in the middle of last month, that “the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia is inevitable.”