MAKKAH: Khatib and Imam at the Grand Mosque Sheikh Saleh bin Muhammad Al-Talib said ridiculing one’s culture and violation of his social values amounted to treason in his sermon on Friday.
Although the imam did not specifically refer to the case of Mazen Abdul Jawad, the 32-year-old Saudia employee who bragged about his sexual adventures, including admitting to pre-martial sex when he was 14 and discussing how he picks up women in Jeddah, the comments by the sheikh are believed to be in reference to the current controversy.
“Another form of treason against one’s own country, which is by no means worse than the treason in its conventional sense, is some of our people whose eyes are dazzled and their hearts captured by their enemy’s culture, speaking against and behaving contrary to our cultural values,” the imam said in his Friday sermon. “They accept unquestioningly all the good and evil values of Western culture, which prompt them to discredit and deride their own values, traditions, literature and arts.”
The sheikh also said there are international organizations watching the developments in the country with the aim of collecting evidence so that they could be used against the interests of the country. He suggested that those inside the country aid foreign provocateurs.
“Their witnesses are some writers amidst us and their evidence are the writings of some of us,” said the sheikh.
The imam also said that pride for one’s country is not contrary to Islamic values.
“To be patriotic to a country or to have belongingness to a nation is instinctual even if that country is a barren desert,” the sheikh said. “Islam is not against people’s belongingness to their country, nation or tribe. It is wrong to suggest that Islam is against patriotism in its true sense. It is the enemies of Islam that depict Islam as against patriotism. In fact they seek to destroy Islam by creating an impression in the people that adherence to Shariah regulations is against their national interests.”
But the khatib warned against taking nationalism to an extreme.
“We should not be driven by imported slogans and alien expressions. Islam rejects the imported concept of nationalism because it has a wicked connotation and takes the form of an idol to which every other value should be subservient. That kind of nationalism opposes Islam and leads to the expulsion of the Law of Allah besides dividing people into feuding and murdering parties,” the speaker said.
He added that patriotism, on the other hand, should promote understanding and cooperation among people, make people proud of their country’s achievements and struggle for its security and development, respect its religious scholars and obey their government.
The scholar also warned against extremism and terrorism because they are ideas diametrically opposed to national and religious interests.
In his speech at the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah, Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Al-Qasim, khatib and imam, exhorted people to fear Allah in all their dealings and urged the young people to be faithful to the sanctity of marriage, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
