JEDDAH: Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah Al Sheikh asked the Ummah on Thursday not to compromise on the issue of terrorism and urged Muslims to unite against suicide attacks.
 
‘There is no place for terrorism in Islam…Muslim intellectuals should address this menace and should take measures to root out this menace, eradicate misunderstandings about Islam and its teachings,’ the grand mufti declared in his Haj sermon at Masjid-i-Nimra in Arafat where over two million Muslims from across the world had gathered for waqoof, the main pillar of Haj.

He said that hostile forces were hatching conspiracies against Islam and Muslims across the world, and doubts were being created in the minds of Muslim youths through modern communication tools.

He urged the Ummah to unite to face the challenges of the contemporary world.

 He said it was because of the non-Islamic economic principles that world’s largest companies were going bankrupt and the world was looking for refuge. The only refuge, he said, was Islam. 

He urged the media not to broadcast programmes that were against moral principles. The sermon also called upon Muslims to focus on education and learning. 

According to some reports, a large contingent among the Iranian pilgrims held a peaceful protest in their camp at Arafat, ignoring Saudi government’s warnings against political activities. 

They chanted slogans for Muslim unity and against the enemies of the faith. ‘Death to America, death to Israel,’ they chanted inside a huge tent. The Saudi security forces did not intervene.