MOSQUE SERMONS FORM SAUDI ARABIA: FEBRUARY 24 -

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JEDDAH 000180 SIPDIS SIPDIS RIYADH, PLEASE PASS TO DHAHRAN; DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARPI; PARIS FOR ZEYA; LONDON FOR TSOU E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/01/2015 TAGS: KISL PREL PTER SA SUBJECT: MOSQUE SERMONS FORM SAUDI ARABIA: FEBRUARY 24 - CONDEMNATION OF RELIGIOUS STRIFE IN IRAQ, ENDORSEMENT OF STOCK EXCHANGE, AND PRAISE FOR JIHADISTS IN PALESTINE Classified By: Acting Consul General Hector Morales, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). FROM MECCA: IMAM CONDEMNS COMMUNAL STRIFE IN IRAQ ¶1. (U) On Friday February 24, in a sermon from the Holy Mosque in Mecca, Imam Shaykh Salih Bin-Muhammad al Talib delivered a sermon calling for Muslims to listen to their hearts. "The heart is the spring of feelings, source of emotions, motivator of manners, and guardian of actions. When the heart is good all manners and actions are good." He asserted "a sound heart is one that is filled with piety and faith and overflowing with goodness and charity." Then, he continued: "The Muslim does not harbor ill will or grudges against fellow Muslims. How can he hope for success, when his heart is full of grudges against his fellow Muslims?" ¶2. (U) After that preamble, the imam referred to the attacks on holy shrines and mosques in Iraq, saying "What took place recently in Iraq, such as the clear provocation and blatant aggression by one faction against another by attacking two shrines is a provocation and an aggression that are not condoned by any religion or supported by any logic, but a cause for sedition, bloodshed, and further attack on Iraq's frail body." He appealed: "Some 170 mosques were burned and destroyed, worshipers were killed in them and others were dragged in the streets. These are only seditions whose fire is sparked by criminals whose victims are the peaceful. In this decisive phase of their history, Iraqis need to control their anger, show self-restraint, place public interests above private interests, and avoid what might further weaken their country and souls. Otherwise, if evil befalls them, it will not distinguish between one community and another. O people of Iraq, your brother Muslims appeal to you in the name of God to hold off and lay down your arms, fear God, and come to terms with one another." In conclusion, he prayed: "O God, straighten out the conditions of Muslims in Iraq, spare their blood, maintain their security, guide them on the path of peace, and restrain their enemy." IN MEDINA: IMAM ENDORSES THE STOCK MARKET ¶3. (U) In the Saudi Arabia TV2 broadcast from the holy Mosque in Medina, Imam Shaykh Husayn Bin-Abd-Al-Aziz Al-Shaykh's sermon addressing the propriety of Muslims participating in the stock market. The sermon began by reminding the listeners that "whoever gets rich through forbidden ways, such as usury, ends up in hell." However, the sermon continued: "O Muslims, with this introduction, dealing in the Stock Exchange Market has spread among Muslims; both in terms of subscription and transaction. It is the duty of Muslims to know God's ruling on such dealing and to make sure what the Shar'iah rulings say. The Muslim must be careful of any unilateral efforts based on interests that conflict with the ruling of the Shar'iah. O Muslim, you must know that there are different types of companies. Some invest in allowable fields and are free of forbidden things. Therefore, there is no objection to subscribing and transacting in such companies. But this should be without ulterior motives and in a market that is free of any unclear methods that harm people. Beware, O Muslims, of falling for markets, where there is monopoly that causes harm. Those who inflate prices in the markets in a manner that conflicts with Shar'iah rulings, ethical rules, and economic principles, must fear God. They must avoid methods of fraud, deception, and cheating." ¶4. (U) After an interruption due to technical difficulties, the sermon continued: "When you buy bonds you have to be sure that the company, from which you buy bonds, goes by the laws of God Almighty and the laws of the Sunnah of our prophet, and by the Shar'iah. He says you have to be careful of the bonds from those companies that indulge in usury. You should not participate in buying their bonds." ¶5. (U) This sermon concluded with a plea to "the people of Iraq asking them to go back to the book of God Almighty and the Sunnah of our prophet, may peace and blessings of God be upon him, and to stop fighting. If they go back to God Almighty and the Sunnah of our prophet, may the peace and blessings of God be upon him. God Almighty will alleviate JEDDAH 00000180 002 OF 002 the crisis they are going through." KHOBAR SERMON DEDICATED TO JIHADIST ORGANIZATIONS, SECULARISTS AND THE DOLLAR ¶6. (C) In a sermon to about 500 worshipers at the Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal Mosque in Khobar, the imam, Shaykh al-Qahtani offered congratulations to Palestinians and Arabs for HAMAS' historic victory. He spoke about HAMAS, its achievements and successes, and criticized the secular Palestinian organizations, primarily Fatah, adding that these organizations had long been compromised and "bought off" with American dollars. He praised HAMAS and other Jihadist organizations, saying that these had stood by their principles and that Jihad was the only way for Palestine to remove Jewish occupiers. "If not Jihad, what choice do the Palestinians have?" He answered: "The Palestinians can stand their ground, even if this means they'll be denied the basic necessities of life, and fight their way to freedom without compromising an inch of their territories... or, they can stick with Fatah or any of the other secularist organizations that will sell their soul for a few meters of land that they can never hope to control, and whose weak leaders are denied not only freedom of movement within the so-called territories, but are people who cannot step out of the privacy of their own homes without prior Israeli consent. The heroic Shaykh Ahmad Yaseen and many of his followers... if they had wanted to live like that, they'd be living in a palace instead of the graves where they are buried right now." The sermon concluded with a call for the congregation and Arab governments to support their Palestinian brethren. Morales