Imam and Khatib at the Grand Mosque Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais warned Muslims against drifting away from the noble values of Islamic culture.A captive audience of hundreds of thousands of Muslims listening to anti-semitic stereotypes - and not one thought he was out of line.
"A people achieve glory by holding fast to the noble values of their culture. In the absence of such values, deviant ideologies threatening global peace and stability emerge," Al-Sudais said while addressing hundreds of thousands of worshippers that filled the Grand Mosque and its squares for the Eid Al-Adha congregation and the millions watching around the world Tuesday morning.
The imam also warned against being the victims of the global media controlled by Zionist extremists.
He cited the strategy of the global media, which is under the influence of the Zionist lobbies, to downplay or ignore the suffering of the Palestinians worsened day after day by occupation forces that deny them food and medicine, raze their homes and Judaize the features of Islam and Al-Aqsa Mosque.
This was tame for al-Sudais. From the BBC in 2005:
Sheikh Abdur-Rahman Al-Sudais, Imam, Ka'ba, Mecca, Saudi Arabia: The history of Islam is the best testament to how different communities can live together in peace and harmony. Muslims must exemplify the true image of Islam in their interaction with other communities.'Eid in the Holy Mosque. Peace, love, brotherhood, forgiveness, and incitement.
John Ware: Sheikh Sudais is a leading Imam from the great mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest city.
He had one voice for his Western audience - another for his followers in Saudi.
Sheikh Abdur-Rahman Al-Sudais: The worst ... of the enemies of Islam are those... whom he... made monkeys and pigs, the aggressive Jews and oppressive Zionists and those that follow them: the callers of the trinity and the cross worshippers... those influenced by the rottenness of their ideas, and the poison of their cultures the followers of secularism... How can we talk sweetly when the Hindus and the idol worshippers indulge in their overwhelming hatred against our brothers... in Muslim Kashmir...
Sudais' statement about "Zionist" control of the media, and Israel denying Palestinian Arabs food and medicine has been completely ignored by every Western media outlet. The Saudi Gazette details his speech and specifically leaves out the part about Jews and Israel.
One possible reason: no non-Muslim reporter is allowed anywhere nearby. So we have a bit of self-censorship as well by Muslim reporters who want to downplay or ignore the rantings of the sheikh.