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Saudi Arabia’s King Salman announces plan to set up Islamic anti-extremism center

18-10-2017 < RT 99 493 words
 

Saudi Arabia will monitor interpretations of the prophet Mohammad’s words to counter extremism, King Salman said in a decree issued Tuesday.


The King will establish the “King Salman Complex” in Medina where elite scholars will monitor and examine religious teachings to “eliminate fake and extremist texts and any texts that contradict the teachings of Islam and justify the committing of crimes, murders and terrorist acts.” the Saudi Press Agency reports.





An assembly will be created in Medina with a council of the world’s Hadith scholars, appointed by royal decree.


The Hadith is the words and actions of Mohammad, as recounted by others, and is the second Islamic text after the Koran. Both are used as guidelines on how Muslims should live their lives. A number of the thousands of hadiths contradict the Koran and other hadiths. ISIS and other extremist groups use particular hadiths to justify and encourage violence.


Sheikh Mohammed bin Hassan Al-Sheikh, a member of the Senior Scholars Council, has been appointed chairman to the council, SPA said.



The Director of the Islamic University of Madinah, Dr. Hatem bin Hassan Al-Marzouqi, gave his approval of the complex, and stressed the importance of removing impurities from the modern teaching of the Hadith, as well as stopping attempts to distort its words to insult Islam and Muslims, SPA reported.


The move is being seen as an attempt by the conservative Wahhabi Kingdom to further distance itself from the perception that it supports terrorism.


Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks were Saudis, while two were from the UAE.  


WikiLeaks cables from the US State Department from 2009 revealed“donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.”



“Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, LeT, and other terrorist groups,” the cable continues.


The Kingdom has also been accused of funding extremists, including ISIS, in Syria. In a 2014 email released by WikiLeaks last October, Hillary Clinton wrote about Saudi Arabia and Qatar supporting ISIS in Syria.  


“While this military/para-military operation is moving forward, we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.” she said.


Saudi Arabia has long funded the promotion of its interpretation of Wahhabi Islam around the world, through funding schools and mosques. A 2017 report by the Center for the Response to Radicalisation and Terrorism found that, in the last 30 years, the Kingdom has spent £67 billion doing so.


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