JEDDAH: Dr. Saleh Al-Fawzan, member of the Council of Senior Scholars and the Standing Committee for Issuing Fatwas in Saudi Arabia, has condemned last week’s suicide bombing at a mosque used by Special Emergency Forces (SEF) in Asir.

Al-Fawzan pointed out that the person who committed this terrorist act had violated the law of Allah.

The bombing, by a 21-year-old Saudi national Yousef Al-Sulaiman, resulted in the martyrdom of 15 people, including SEF corporals and trainees and four Bangladeshi nationals.

In an interview with SPA on Thursday, he said that the person who had carried out the terrorist act had been deceived by the enemies of Islam.

“Those who do such things have become the means of carrying out ideas of aggression against the nation,” he said. “They claim that the acts are done to please Allah when in fact, the acts are disobeying Allah and striving with the devil for the destruction of the Islamic nation.”

Al-Fawzan called for the immunization of young people against deviant ideas promoted by the enemies of the state and of Islam.

He also called on the family and parents to take care in bringing up their children. “Children should benefit from a proper education in which debate is carried on in the best manner,” he said. “They must be taught the correct religious approach in order to protect them from deviant companions and suspicious groups.”

Meanwhile, a number of officials from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo condemned the bombing.

In their cables to the Islamic Affairs Ministry, they conveyed their condolences to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and the families of the martyrs.

Among those who condemned the bombing were Bosnia-Herzegovina’s former Grand Mufti Mustafa Ceric; Cultural Promotion Association chief Bilal Darwisch; Chairman of the Scientific Institute for Culture and Contemporary Studies in Kosovo, Akram Biram Abdi; and Adjelko Student Institution head Maurice Ribot.