Khalaf Al-Harbe Okaz Where can I get a maniac movie director who can merge three stories that I consider to be wonders of our present time into a thriller? The three unbelievable stories happened one after another in less than a week. In the first story, a drug addict in Makkah killed his mother, left her soaked in blood and went to the Grand Mosque to perform Umrah. He was arrested by police while doing tawaf (circumambulating around the Kaaba). The second story is about a group of terrorists who killed a policeman, burned his body and then differed over who would film the operation because photography, in their belief, is haram (against Islam). After a heated fiqh (jurisprudence) argument that continued for more than two hours, they went to attend a wedding party as part of their determination to fulfill their social obligations. The third story is not about murder but it may add a comic dimension to the film. It is about a young Saudi man who was sent abroad to do his higher studies under the government's scholarship program. He uploaded on social media recordings of himself forcibly kissing foreign women before fleeing. When he was back in the Kingdom, the same young man sent a number of tweets attacking people who criticize the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Haia). He said these people only wanted to spread evil in society. Long live schizophrenia … glory for insanity. What is this religion that is void of mercy, honesty and humanity? What kind of faith can a man who killed his own mother have while doing tawaf? What can photography add to the sins of killers? Can it contaminate their strong faith after murdering a human being and burning his body? What kind of religion will permit a man to kiss foreign women walking peacefully on the street by force then flee the scene? My understanding of religion, any religion, is that it is a set of stable principles and ethical codes. There is no value to religion when the appearances are given more importance than the real cores and essences. Religion will have no impact on the hearts of believers if the outside look is given more significance than the genuine core value. Islam is a religion of righteousness, justice, mercy, tolerance, honesty, love and many other humanitarian values. The Muslims strongly believe that Almighty Allah will see them in all their conditions and situations. So when they do anything, they will be under the strong impression that Allah is closely observing them. Therefore, they will not dare to do anything that may cause His anger or that would lead to them being labeled as sinners. There is no crime more vicious and abhorrent than killing somebody and burning his body than killing innocent and loving mothers. What kind of reasoning is this where filming dead bodies in fire may be non-Islamic while killing people is not? What is the mentality that causes a young man to kiss women abroad by force, film his dreadful actions then ask the women inside his country to be virtuous and straightforward? There is no similarity between the three cases. In the first case the murderer was a drug addict. In the second story the murderers were a group of insane terrorists and in the third the scholarship student is a pervert. The common factor between these three horrible stories is the inclusion of religion at the wrong moment. The criminals are claiming to be good Muslims. They commit all kinds of vices under the name of the religion. They do not shy away from committing big crimes but when it comes to small matters they put on the costume of religion and consider them to be non-Islamic. When it comes to the trivial matters, they suddenly become good and committed Muslims. They see these small sins, like taking a photograph of a burning body, as a serious crime prevented by religion. These people constitute a real danger to the religion. The greatest jeopardy against Islam are the people who have emptied it of its real meanings of mercy and righteousness. These people consider the values of truthfulness, honesty and providence to be marginal matters. They have made Islam a religion of marginality. This will take us back to the time before this great religion was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
