Mecca Sermon Hints at Saudi Normalization With Zionist Regime

Date: 06 September 2020 - 22:30

News ID: ۸۲۵۱۶

RIYADH (Dispatches) – A sermon by Abdulrahman al-Sudais, the imam of the Grand Mosque of Mecca, has caused a stir on social media after it was interpreted by some as a prelude to Saudi normalization with the Zionist regime.
Sudais delivered a Friday sermon in which he preached dialogue and kindness to non-Muslims, making specific reference to Jews.
The comments came less than four weeks after the United Arab Emirates and the Zionist regime announced plans to normalize diplomatic ties, amid speculation regarding whether Saudi Arabia will follow suit.
The imam urged worshippers to avoid "any misconceptions about correct beliefs in the heart coexisting with having healthy dealings in interpersonal exchanges and international relations”.
He went on to mention several stories from the Prophet Muhammad’s (Peace Be Upon Him) life in which he maintained good relations with non-Muslims.
"When the course of healthy human dialogue is neglected, parts of people’s civilizations will collide, and the language that will become prevalent is one of violence, exclusion and hatred,” Sudais said.
The remarks met with criticism on social media, with many

users accusing Sudais of misusing the platform of Islam’s holiest mosque.
Sudais also used his sermon to discuss the status of the al-Asqa Mosque in al-Quds, which he said had been "taken prisoner”.
"This is an issue that is of utmost priority to the people of Islam and it must not be forgotten amidst new struggles that appear,” he told worshippers. "It must be kept in mind, but without exaggerations in the media or battles on the internet.”
The normalization deal between the Zionist regime and the UAE has raised concerns about the sensitive status of al-Aqsa, the third-holiest site in Islam.
A report last week suggested that the ambiguous wording of a joint statement by the United States, the Zionist regime and the UAE was an intentional attempt to open up the al-Aqsa compound for Jewish prayer and ultimately change the status quo.
While Jews are at present allowed to access the site, they are not allowed to pray there as per an agreement between the Zionist regime and Jordan, the official custodian of Christian and Muslim holy sites in al-Quds.
At the end of his sermon, Sudais prayed to God to "rescue al-Aqsa mosque from the clutches of the aggressors” and allow it to be "a revered location until the day of reckoning”.
His stance was seen as contradictory by social media users, many of whom accused him of betraying the Palestinian cause.
This was not the first time Sudais has caused controversy.
In 2017, he was criticized for claiming in a TV interview that U.S. President Donald Trump, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia were "steering the world to peace”.
He was also heckled during a talk he gave at a mosque in Geneva in 2018, where he was asked by an audience member: "How can you lecture us about peace while you boycott and starve your brothers in Yemen and Qatar?”
Saudi Arabia does not have official diplomatic relations with the Zionist regime, but Persian Gulf Arab regimes have had increasingly public ties with the Zionist regime in recent years.
Middle East Eye previously revealed that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had pulled out of a planned visit to Washington DC to meet Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he feared that the news had leaked and that his own presence in the U.S. capital would become a "nightmare”.
Sources told MEE that Trump and his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner had been pushing for the meeting to happen in order to relaunch bin Salman’s image as a young Arab ‘peacemaker’ and shore up regional support for the deal between the Zionist regime and the UAE.