Saudi media is reporting that the Saudi government’s religious ministry has warned mosque imams not use the books and opinions of three of the Muslim Brotherhood’s key historical ideologues, including its founder Hassan Al-Banna. According to a report by the Saudi-owned pan-Arab Al Arabiya News:
January 19, 2015 The Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance has warned mosque imams against using books and opinions of three Muslim Brotherhood figures, Al-Hayat newspaper reported.
The ministry told imams not to use excerpts from the books written by Sayyid Qutub, Hassan Al-Banna and Muhammad Saroor and described them as people with extremist views.
During the launch of a dawah program at Jazan Winter Festival, Tawfiq Al-Sudairi, deputy minister for the affairs of mosques, called for purging society of all books written by those three figures.
He said: ‘Pulpits of mosques are not for agitating the public, voicing personal opinions and creating conflicts.’
‘They should be used to direct people to what is right and what is wrong and spread harmony and solidarity in society.’
He warned imams against siding with terrorist organizations and political parties.
The new minister, Sulaiman Aba Al-Khail, promised to change the plans and methods used by Islamic missionaries.
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The GMBDW reported in March of last year that Saudi Arabia had formally designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and was among a group of Gulf countries that had recalled their envoys from Qatar over the issue. We also reported in May 2014 that the country had arrested nine university professors for their alleged links to the Muslim Brotherhood and reported the same month that three well-known imams in Saudi Arabia’s Southern Province had been banned for life from delivering sermons after they were found to be connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. However, at the same time we discussed certain inconsistencies related to the Saudi Muslim World League (MWL) which appeared to be operating outside of the new Saudi policy on the Brotherhood by maintaining ties to important figures in the Global Muslim Brotherhood.
Earlier this month, the GMBDW discussed an article which looks at what is said to be an “adjustment” to the Saudi relationship with so-called Wahabbism, the dominant form of Islam in Saudi Arabia and usually described as “austere” and “ultra-conservative.” In May 2013, Ahram Online published a useful history of the tumultuous and sometimes difficult to understand relationship between Saudi Arabia and the Global Muslim Brotherhood.
In December 2010, we discussed an article by Dr. John Calvert giving his interpretation about the role of Sayyid Qutb in the thought of the Muslim Brotherhood.
For more information on Sayyid Qutb, go here.