The video of the fracas between a Saudi and an Egyptian at a Riyadh mosque on Friday has gone viral and does absolutely nothing to demonstrate that Saudis can manage to separate religion from politics or that Islam is a religion of peace.
The video is an embarrassing piece of theater sparked by comments from the imam who cursed Egyptian Gen. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who had initiated the crackdown on the recent violence.
Some Egyptians attending the Friday sermon took exception to the imam’s remarks because they had no place in the mosque. When they complained, some Saudis stood up and started a brawl with the Egyptians. The video as of Saturday had more than one million views.
Apparently the imam, who is now on suspension pending an investigation, did not get the memo from the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Dawa and Guidance, which between 2003 and 2011 has systemically banned about 3,500 imams from preaching for a wide range of violations.
Imams have been banned from working in mosques because they expounded extremist ideas. They have also been fired for chronic absenteeism and failing to properly read the Qur’an or not memorizing it. It takes a lot for the ministry to fire somebody. It usually uses every option available to get imams in line, but some just don’t understand the concept that extremism and political rhetoric is counterproductive. Actually, it just makes a lot of people mad as hell.
So, despite the Saudi government’s policy of paying close attention to the language spoken in mosques, some imams insist on the volatile habit of mixing religion with politics and reflecting their own point of view to the public.
By verbally abusing El-Sisi, the imam violates the primary government policy that supports the actions of the Egyptian military to stabilize and secure the country. The government also admonishes preachers not to level ad hominem attacks against individuals or criticize the actions of friendly governments. What is the primary mission of a religious leader? To unite, not divide.
Yet we have one religious leader now on videotape deliberately dividing the people he is charged with uniting. To add insult, many worshipers simply left the mosque rather than be exposed to this bad behavior, while others were pushed out in an attempt to keep the peace.
This defeats the entire purpose of prayer and the Friday sermon. Even in a state of war, the mosque shouldn’t be used as a war zone. And for a brief moment, that’s what occurred at the Riyadh mosque. It was a battle over political versus religious ideas. We have seen the abuse of sanctity and the destruction of mosques in Egypt, and now we have an individual in a position of religious authority abuse the trust of his worshipers to spread politics at the most inappropriate venue. The instances of political rhetoric are out of place and have nothing to do with dawa.
Friday sermons are reserved for building advocacy and the consolidation of Islamic values. It is to preach the positive concepts of faith to stabilize the community and address people’s daily problems, in addition to teaching them religion.
It’s intolerable that people with religious authority abuse their position to advocate a cause completely alien to the teachings of Islam.
