The meeting was also attended by Saud bin Talib, undersecretary at the ministry for administrative and technical affairs, as well as the undersecretary of the Ministry for Islamic Affairs, Endowment, Dawa and Guidance Tawfiq Al-Sudairy.

Al-Asheikh expressed his thanks and appreciation for the king for the royal gesture, and named it the “King Abdullah Program to Repair and Maintain Mosques.” He told the 13 directors, “You should select the companies for being capable of doing this work, and not for any kind of favoritism.”

The minister asked the directors to give priority in repair and maintenance work to the mosques on major roads in big cities and districts, and to the needy mosques anywhere. “The repair works should cover all mosques in all cities, towns and villages, without exception,” he said.

Al-Asheikh noted that the building and repair of mosques is an Islamic duty and asked his directors to specify all needy mosques everywhere, giving top priority to those in urgent need of maintenance and furnishing. “We want the result of this work to appear to the people immediately,” he said.