Saudi Arabia continues its arbitrary policies against imams and preachers

The Saudi regime continues its arbitrary policies against imams and preachers under the pretext of confronting the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs decided to exclude 54 imams and preachers in the Makkah region.

The exclusion decision claimed that they committed administrative and intellectual violations, according to Saudi newspapers.

The list excluded included 17 imams and preachers from the holy capital, 18 from Jeddah, three from Taif, five from Turbah, three from Khurma, and four from al-Qunfudhah, along with one each in al-Kamil, al-Layth, al-Jamum and Bahra.

Last year, the ministry removed more than 100 imams and preachers because they did not comply with the warning about the Muslim Brotherhood’s danger.

The local newspaper Al-Watan quoted a government source saying that the General Administration of Islamic Affairs, Da’wah and Guidance in Makkah Region counted the violators, numbering 100 imams and preachers, and submitted to the ministry a request for a dismissal decision.

The source added that the ministry approved the decision, claiming that the Ministry of Islamic Affairs “will not tolerate anyone who violates the instructions issued by it.”

The Minister of Islamic Affairs, Abd al-Latif Al al-Sheikh, issued a circular to all the preachers of the necessity of stating the “negative impact” of the Brotherhood, as he put it.

Later, the famous Mujtahid tweeted the Saudi image, which ordered the preachers’ dismissal, who did not implement the order by reading the Scholars Council’s statement on the Brotherhood and criticizing the group during the Friday sermon.

Last November, the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars described the Brotherhood, in a statement, as a “terrorist group”, and said that the group “does not represent the approach of Islam.”

There is no declared organization of the Kingdom group, which has hosted prominent Brotherhood leaders in previous periods.

The Brotherhood rejected these accusations, stating that it is a “reform” group and “not a terrorist”.

A spokesman for the group, Talat Fahmy, said: The Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt in 1928, “is far from violence, terrorism and the separation of the nation.

He added that the group “denies all the accusations brought by the Council of Senior Scholars against it.”

He emphasized that the group’s approach is based on the Book of God and the authentic Sunnah, without exaggeration or extremism, and its history attests to that.

He continued: The group is entirely far from violence and terrorism and has always been a victim of dictatorial regimes’ violence and terror.

He stressed that the group remained biased towards the true Islamic belief and the just causes of the Ummah, the Palestinian issue.

Fahmy relied on the statements of prominent Saudi scholars against the group, including “Abdulaziz bin Baz”, “Bin Jibreen”, and “Safar Al-Hawali”, and the Permanent Committee for Fatwa.

He said: “These said that the Brotherhood is one of the groups closest to the truth, and among the Sunnis, the community, the surviving groups, and a moderate group that intends to reform and call to God.”

The Brotherhood spokesman called on everyone to work on what unites the nation to raise its religion, defend the Sunnah of its Prophet, and confront the dangers and plans that are evil in the nation.