MOSQUE SERMONS FROM SAUDI ARABIA - MARCH 10 AND 3:

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 JEDDAH 000220 SIPDIS SIPDIS RIYADH, PLEASE PASS TO DHAHRAN; DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARPI PARIS FOR ZEYA; LONDON FOR TSOU E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/14/2015 TAGS: ECON KISL KWMN PGOV PREL PTER SA SUBJECT: MOSQUE SERMONS FROM SAUDI ARABIA - MARCH 10 AND 3: ISLAM ADVOCATES JUSTICE, THE MEDIA IS TAINTED, IMAMS CONDEMN BLOODSHED, AND COMMENT ON WOMEN AND WEALTH Classified By: Consul General Tatiana Gfoeller, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). FROM THE EASTERN PROVINCE: ISLAM ENDORSES JUSTICE, NOT PREJUDICE ¶1. (C) On March 10 from the Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal Mosque in Khobar, Imam Shaikh al-Qahtani spoke to an audience of approximately 500. During the first part of his sermon, the imam talked at length about tolerance and why and how Muslims must practice it. He illustrated his homily with examples from the life of the Prophet. His lesson was that Islam is about fairness and justice, regardless of religious affiliation, race, color, sex or ethnic background. He called on the congregation to follow this rule and never side with another Muslim purely on the basis of religion, adding that justice applied to all, including followers of other faiths. IMAM ATTACKS BOOK FAIR AND MEDIA ¶2. (C) Al-Qahtani followed this plea for tolerance with a fiery attack on a major Saudi daily newspaper and its editor and others involved in the Riyadh Book Fair. The imam accused the organizers of the Riyadh Book Fair of using the opportunity to attack anything Islamic. Although he used no names, listeners easily identified the subject of the imam's wrath as Turki al-Sudairi, editor-in-chief of al-Riyadh, one of the Kingdom's leading dailies. The "editor," as the imam referred to al-Sudairi, had no business criticizing the Islamists who had voiced concern with the way the fair was organized. He questioned the Saudi Press Association and the way its members had been elected, indirectly accusing Turki al-Sudairi, Mohammad al-Wail and others of secularism because, "people who don't pray the morning prayers in mosques should never be elected in the first place." He also implied that the press association is an "old boys' network." He claimed that newspapers and satellite TV channels are filled with and run by the same old faces, adding that he saw no hope of change unless the door is opened to others (interpreted by the congregants to mean Islamists.). COMMENT: The reference to satellite TV is believed, by the informant, to be a jibe at another veteran and well-connected journalist, Abd al-Rahman al-Rashed, now head of the Dubai-based Saudi all-news channel, al-Arabiya TV. Al-Arabiya also employs other Saudi journalists-in-exile: Dawoud al-Shirayan, formerly al-Hayat's bureau chief in Riyadh, Husain Shobokshi, formerly of Okaz and Turki al-Dakheel. ¶3. (C) No report on the March 3 mosque sermons in the Eastern Province was received. REFORM AND MODERATION ¶4. On March 10, speaking from Mecca, Shaykh Salih Bin-Abdallah Bin-Humayd offered a sermon on the issues of reform and openness and the need to renounce differences, fight injustice and corruption, and pursue centrism and moderation. Men of knowledge and reformists must "define its (reform's) features and rules. The tragedy," according to the imam "is that some Muslims of opinion, ideology, and education are misunderstood or misinterpret matters intentionally or unintentionally." He then called for adherence to religion and application of the teachings of the Prophet. WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND PROBLEMS ¶5. (U) The imam then undertook to clarify the matter by discussing woman's rights and problems, noting that many talk or write about the woman's rights in a "crooked and confusing manner." He stressed that woman, like man, has rights and duties and that it is necessary "to help women obtain and protect their rights.... A woman suffers from many forms of injustice, oppression, exclusions, marginalization, and encroachment on her right to a decent life, education, marriage, maintenance, custody, fair treatment, and respect." He asserted that "woman has the right to participate in decision-making and to have a fair share in inheritance, JEDDAH 00000220 002 OF 003 wealth, and grants in accordance with the pure Islamic Law." WOMEN AND FINANCES ¶6. (U) The imam continued saying that finances in this age are considered the most important factor for a better social life, and that in accordance with this view a woman is required to work and support herself. The imam argued that the dominance of the financial factor destroys the family and destabilizes the society. He called for the media "to reinforce the positive role of women in constructing and developing the society" and opposed all forms of exploitation of women in any area. In his second sermon of the day, he criticized Muslim media organs and writers that would plunge the Muslim woman into all areas without any reservation or precaution, urging the Islamic nation to preserve the familial balance and to adhere to the Koran and the Prophet's tradition. MECCA IMAM PREACHES AGAINST BLOODSHED, CONDEMNS TERRORIST ATTACK ¶7. (U) From the Holy Mosque in Mecca on March 3, Imam Shaykh Usamah Abdallah Khayyat preached a sermon warning Muslims against bloodshed. "Undoubtedly, the most evil and wicked aggression is shedding spared blood and killing a Muslim whose blood, property, and honor are spared by God. (K)illing him is viewed as a cardinal sin, and the perpetrator will be punished with permanent torture in Hell.... (T)he same also applies to the killing of non-Muslims, who have entered into a peace agreement with Muslims. Those killing innocent men, women, children and patients and destroying institutions and economic establishments will receive severe punishment." ¶8. (U) Referring to the recent terrorist attack on the Abqaiq Oil Processing Facility, he denounce "aggression on the country. The aggression, which has targeted this country, is denounced by every honest believer who fears the Day of Judgment, seeks God's mercy, and calls on everybody tarnished by the dirt of such an action to turn to Almighty God in repentance and not to follow the steps of the devil." He also warned, "one should not be used as a tool by the enemies of his religion, his homeland, and his nation." His sermon concluded: "We thank Almighty God for giving success to our brothers, the security men, in aborting the plans of those who have committed this sin and indulged in that aggression, which only benefits the nation's enemies and those lying in wait for Muslims." FROM MEDINA: MUSLIMS AND WEALTH, THE SANCTIFIED POOR ¶9. (U) In a sermon from Medina on March 10, coinciding with a sudden, and, for many neophyte Saudi investors, frightening downturn in the previously hot stock market, Imam Shaykh Abd al-Muhsin al-Qasim, preached that God has created wealth and poverty to show how much the wealthy are thankful and how much the poor are patient, warning that money may discourage Muslims from their religion and that the poor will enter paradise 500 years before the wealthy. The remainder of the lecture was devoted to the advantages and disadvantages of money, urging the wealthy to spend their money in the right way. IMAM SPEAKS AGAINST THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN ¶10. (U) On March 3 Shyakh Abd al-Bari al-Thubayti, in Medina spoke out against the emancipation of women. He asserted that God "having honored women and guided us to the right path, (women) have gained unprecedented dignity and honor," as a mother, wife or daughter, and she has every right to be respected. The imam insisted that some people "have been deceived by the material civilization into believing that the key to progress is to emancipate women; some allege that women's rights are linked to their disassociation from religion. They have forced women to abandon the veil and mix with men, destroying her chastity and her honor and depriving her of everything in the name of freedom and emancipation. This denies women her basic duty of bringing up children, adding that Almighty God assigned to her duties in harmony JEDDAH 00000220 003 OF 003 with her physical stature and that allowing women to compete with men "will lead to the collapse of families and to the spread of unemployment." Gfoeller