A Saudi prominent cleric says Takfiri groups as well as certain regional and international intelligence bodies are using Saudi youths as \u201cfirewood\u201d for their own conflicts and problems.<\/p>\n
During his praying sermon on Friday in Saudi Arabia\u2019s eastern city of Qatif, Sheikh Hassan Saffar criticized extremist groups for their \u201cradical and terrorist acts\u201d and deceiving young people to change their ways \u201ctoward havoc\u201d.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia has been witnessing a surge in people leaving their country to join terrorist and militant groups, especially in Syria which has been gripped with a massive charged-insurgency led by multi-national militants.<\/p>\n
\u201cTakfiri way of thinking which is clearly observed in education methods, religious orders, religious sermons and public media is providing the base for this radical and terrorist approach for Saudi youths,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Shia cleric, who is well known for his attempts to ease religious tensions — especially between Sunnis and Shias — in his country, warned that the responsibility lies largely over those who promoted violence under the pretext of Jihad (holy war).<\/p>\n
There are many clerics in Saudi Arabia who have been encouraging people to go fight as a \u201creligious duty\u201d in Syria, where the war, marked with extremist acts of violence, has been going on for nearly three years and left some 130,000 people dead.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody is allowed to be violent toward someone who has different religious or political views. This is terrorism, destruction and aberration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sheikh Saffar said certain regional and international intelligence bodies were also responsible for a \u201cwave of terrorist acts\u201d among Saudi youths, adding that, \u201cthese intelligence centers are entering our youths in destructive and terroristic wars\u201d.<\/p>\n
They are using young minds as \u201cfirewoods\u201d to lead their own way and they will turn against these youths as soon as they are done with their games, he added.<\/p>\n
The Saudi reformist cleric said a \u201cblocked political scene\u201d and \u201clack of alternative options\u201d has caused widespread disappointment among Saudi youths which makes them easily get deceived by ill-minded people who depict a false image of religion for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody is responsible for these deceived youths; young people whose acts has brought nothing but destruction of their country, tarnishing our religion, violating security and stability and bringing fear anywhere they go,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Considered as one of the most important Shia leaders in Saudi Arabia, Hassan Saffar established the Shia Islamic Reform Movement in the early 1990s, which sought to improve the relations between the Shia and the ruling Sunni family in the country.<\/p>\n
On October 23, 2009, The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre mentioned him as one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Saudi prominent cleric says Takfiri groups as well as certain regional and international intelligence bodies are using Saudi youths as \u201cfirewood\u201d for their own conflicts and problems. During his praying sermon on Friday in Saudi Arabia\u2019s eastern city of Qatif, Sheikh Hassan Saffar criticized extremist groups for their \u201cradical and terrorist acts\u201d and deceiving …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":5,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-miscellaneous","category-news-and-analysis","category-scientists-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7831"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7836,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7831\/revisions\/7836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}