MAKKAH, 7 May 2007 — The Reconciliation Committee in the Makkah Region is one of the most remarkable charitable committees established and fostered by the late Makkah Gov. Prince Abdul Majeed.

The committee, which started functioning in a humble office at Sheikh Abdul Aziz ibn Baz Mosque in Makkah, rapidly expanded. It is currently housed in a five-story building with branch offices in Jeddah, Taif and other towns, and has over 50 members and employees.

Sheikh Nasser ibn Misfar Al-Zahrani, executive chairman of the committee, who worked with the late prince since the committee’s inception recollects what Prince Abdul Majeed used to say: “Whatever may be my other concerns and preoccupations, the Reconciliation Committee remains the uppermost in my heart.”

Al-Zahrani said, “I have seen and experienced the prince’s great spirit that was full of mercy and tenderness. While working on several cases I have read his notes and comments expressing how deeply he was moved by dire situations in which people were caught at times.”

The initial motivation for the establishment of the committee was a royal decree (No. 8/547) issued on Feb. 6, 2000, directing the governorates in all 13 regions of the Kingdom to seek every avenue to reconcile parties involved in cases of qisas (retribution) and secure pardons for prisoners on death row, Al-Zahrani said.

Prince Abdul Majeed was one of those who personally strove to reconcile between the culprit and the wronged. Encouraged by this royal decree and by his humanitarian concern, the prince wanted to develop a more concrete system of ensuring reconciliation.

Thus the Reconciliation Committee began functioning five years ago in a spartan office with just three rooms. The initial success encouraged the prince to expand the committee’s activities and increase the number of its board members. The prince formed a higher commission for the committee alongside an executive committee.

The next move was to rent a two-story building and tap the services of scholars and dignitaries to persuade people to pardon those who had wronged them. The fame of the committee spread and with it increased the public demand for the committee’s services. Soon a branch office was opened in Jeddah, which was followed by one in Taif and other towns.

In last October a five-story building was rented in Makkah to serve as the headquarters of the Central Committee for Reconciliation.

An offshoot of the committee was the Center for Virtue to Parents in Jeddah. The center has been set up as the phenomenon of disobedient children grew. It sought to inculcate a sense of respect and affection in children toward their parents.

Al-Zahrani said cases and disputes had been referred to the committee from the governor’s office or other regional offices, as well as from Shariah courts, human right bodies and directly by the plaintiffs.

“The prince would sometimes call me in the late hours of night asking me to go out and find an amicable settlement in a particular case or to draw my attention to the problem of a poor and helpless citizen who had sought the prince’s help,” Al-Zahrani said.

The total number of people saved over the past five years from the executioner’s sword through the prince’s efforts reached 114 last week when a 28-year-old youth on death row was released from a Taif prison.

The committee managed to reconcile 832 couples who were on the brink of divorce, resolved 334 other family problems, settled 102 cases of sons being ungrateful to their parents, provided assistance to 88 drug addicts, helped bring 80 young women back to their relatives and ended 234 family feuds. It also sent 95 people to social protection centers, offered financial support to 413 people and solved 472 social issues.

The prince’s efforts to obtain pardons for people on death row were not limited to Saudis alone. One of the earliest instances of his successful intervention was the case of an Egyptian, who murdered a compatriot in a village outside Taif. After his relatives failed to secure a pardon after 12 years of efforts and the deadline for his execution was just around the corner, the prisoner wrote a letter to the prince seeking his help in the matter, Al-Zahrani said.

“The prince ordered me to visit the victim’s relatives in Egypt. I found them in a very poor state. On behalf of the prince, I invited them to visit Makkah and Madinah and perform the Haj that year. They promptly accepted the invitation and came to the holy land. After the Haj was over, the prince pointed out to them the merits of pardoning and persuaded them to do it hoping for the boundless reward from the Almighty. They were moved by the prince’s words and agreed to pardon the culprit. They were presented with a tidy sum collected from philanthropists as well as personal gifts from the prince. Both parties were happy,” Al-Zahrani said.

A 25-year-old Saudi from an extremely poor family was awaiting execution after his relatives’ efforts to secure a pardon from the father of the victim failed. However, the victim’s father said he was willing to pardon on payment of a huge sum in blood money. Since the convict’s family was very poor and little connections, they could not raise the required money and sought the assistance of the Reconciliation Committee, which also failed to raise the required amount, Al-Zahrani said. Only 24 hours was left for the punishment to be carried out.

Till late in the night Al-Zahrani continued to telephone rich acquaintances requesting financial help on behalf of the hapless youth. However, the money provided was not enough. As a last resort, he went to the father of the murdered and asked him to accept the collected amount and consent to the pardon. Though he refused to consent, the father was ready to make some more concessions but nowhere near the collected amount.

Al-Zahrani returned home and informed the governor about the details of the case and requested him to issue orders to extend the date of execution at least for a day so that he can make some last-ditch efforts. However, the prince refused to extend the date but told him to draw the required amount of blood money from the prince’s personal account and thus save the youth on death row.