He was speaking on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Cooperative Office for Dawa in Jeddah on Wednesday.

Al-Asheikh said collaboration in virtuous matters is an Islamic principle.  “The success of the activities of the organization lies in its partnership with the government in line with the teaching of the Holy Qur’an, which says: “Cooperate in virtuous deeds and piety.”

The Cooperative Office for Dawa is a not-for-profit organization with 300 branches across the Kingdom. It is run with the support and under the supervision of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs.

Al-Asheikh commended the role of the office describing it as the backbone of the ministry’s activities in the area of dawa (call to Islam) and guidance, particularly among expatriate communities.

“The ministry acknowledges the successful role played by the organization in taking the message of Islam to the different sections of expatriate communities in the Kingdom,” the minister said.

He admitted that the task of imparting Islamic enlightenment to communities from different regions and diverse cultural backgrounds was not easy.

“Engaging them in dialogue and persuading them to seek the truth is an enormous task. In my travels in different parts of the world I never came across any group as successful as this organization in spreading the message of Islam,” he said.

The charity employs experts to communicate with foreign workers in their own languages. "While one section handles people speaking Tagalog, another deals with Hindi speakers and a third with those speaking Sinhalese,” he said.

The organization also translates books by eminent scholars into different languages and circulates them online. The ministry also helps the office organize its general and financial administration, said Al-Asheikh, adding that an efficient administrative setup is essential for any organization to succeed.

“There was a time when the organization did not have an internal auditor. The ministry placed the required regulations to enforce internal and external accounting and auditing,” he said.

The foundation, which helped 270 people embrace Islam recently, organized 1,042 classes and lectures, 25 television events featured in 20 channels, 253 preaching tours and arranged 10,000 mobile prayer halls. It has 45 women’s centers.

Its beach meetings in summer benefited 61,000 people while 90,000 people attended its Ramadan contests.