Islamic media is reporting on an international counterterrorism conference being held this week in the Saudi holy city of Makkah. According to an OnIslam report:
February 22, 2015 [SaudiArabia] hosts an international conference in the holy city of Makkah on Sunday, to discuss counter terrorism from a Muslim perspective.
The conference, held under the title “Islam and the Fight against Terrorism”, highlights efforts by the Kingdom in the field of fighting terrorism.
Organized by the Muslim World League (MWL), it opens today under Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman’s patronage, Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal.
According to MWL Secretary-General Abdullah Al-Turki, the theme of counterterrorism was selected because of the deeply upsetting events taking place in the world as a result of terrorist acts falsely attributed to Islam.
He added that fighting terror is a religious necessity in Islam.
“The terrorist groups, their supporters, who declare society as a whole as infidel and kill innocent people as a religious act, are misguided groups that are not following the right Islamic path,” said Al-Turki.
The secretary-general added that the international community should confront those supporting terrorism, stressing that MWL subsidiaries in various countries have been striving to fight against terror.
“The conference will also focus on the Kingdom’s tireless efforts to combat terror and also the implementation of the Shari`ah law and the mutual support between the Kingdom’s people and its leaders,” said the MWL secretary-general.
The conference is attended by several academics and officials from Islamic centers and societies across the world.
The first session will be dedicated to defining terrorism form an Islamic perspective, as well as the use of religion as an umbrella for terror.
Read the rest here.
Arab media is also reporting on remarks by the new Saudi King delivered at the conference:
Emphasizing the need to map out a strategic plan to combat terrorism, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman stated on Sunday that Saudi Arabia will not wait idly by while extremists tarnish the image of Islam.
“Saudi Arabia has left no stone unturned in the fight against terrorism,” King Salman said at the opening of an international conference on counterterrorism organized by the Muslim World League.In his keynote speech, which was read out by Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal,
King Salman lauded Saudi security forces for their courageous efforts in fighting terrorism.
Read the rest here.
In March 2014, the GMBDW reported that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) had designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and said a committee would be set up to determine the groups to be outlawed. However, Islamist media have been recently reporting on statements by the Saudi foreign minister and others suggesting that under the new King, the kingdom maybe prepared to renege on their action against the Brotherhood. The GMBDW has been reporting since the designation that although the Kingdom has taken some action against the Brotherhood, including life time bans on sermons from a group of imams accused of Brotherhood ties and the arrest of nine university professors accused of similar ties, the quasi-governmental Saudi Muslim World League (MWL) appears to be maintaining its own long-held close relationships with the wider Global Muslim Brotherhood. As we have reported or noting today:
- Just prior to the designation, two leaders of the Global Muslim Brotherhood were in attendance at a MWL conference under the patronage of then King Abdullah- Europe Trust head Ahmed Al-Rawi from the UK and Issam Al-Bashir from the Sudan, a former director of the Islamic Relief, a member of the European Council For Fatwa And Research, and a former Minister of Religious Affairs in the political party of Hassan Al-Turabi, formerly closely tied to the Brotherhood.
- In May 2014, just after the designation, the MWL Secretary-General received Dr. Ali Qaradaghi a close associate of Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi and the the Deputy head of Qaradawi’s International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS).
- One month later, the MWL Secretary-General received the Sudanese Field Marshal Abdul Rahman Siwar Al-Dhahab, known to have been the deputy head of the Union of Good (UOG) and a close associate of Youssef Qaradawi.
- Last week the MWL Secretary-General met again with Issam Al-Bashir where they discussed ongoing cooperation with the Islamic Fiqh Academy in the Sudan.
- Ali Qaradaghi (see above)
- Muzammil Siddiqi (longtime leader in the US Muslim Brotherhood and the MWL representative in the US)
- Ahmad al-Rawi (see above)
- Munib Hasan al-Rawi (representative of the Europe Trust in the Czech Republic)
- Ibrahim Salah (long time Muslim Brotherhood leader in Switzerland)
- Abdullah bin Mansour (likely the current President of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe)
The GMBDW believes that this apparent disconnect between the stated position of the Kingdom on the Muslim Brotherhood may reflect either a lack of knowledge of how the Global Muslim Brotherhood functions or, more likely, a way for Saudi Arabia to deal with internal Islamist dissent and appease its allies while continuing to maintain its stature within the Islamist world.