Sheikh Saleh Bin Abdul Aziz Aal Al-Sheikh, Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance, has revealed that 3,200 mosque preachers and imams have been removed from their posts in the last five years due to their embracement of “mistaken beliefs.” Addressing Special Security Forces staff in Riyadh on Tuesday, Aal Al-Sheikh described those of deviant thought as having been “embraced by terrorist cells and exploited under the pretext of jihad in Afghanistan and other places”. “They were, however, not confronting the occupation as some of them claim,” Al-Sheikh said, “but were instead recruited there and then returned to the Kingdom with the beliefs dictated to them.” Aal Al-Sheikh said: “The ministry has in the last five years carried out a campaign to correct the Shariah understandings of staff at mosques in all regions of the Kingdom. Saudi society has in the last two decades witnessed problems of beliefs that several bodies, among them the Ministry of Islamic Affairs as a legitimate body with many duties and responsibilities, have set out to counter, and part of that has been through the correcting of Shariah understandings among mosque imams and sermon preachers, as well as on the Internet and other areas.” Aal Al-Sheikh continued by saying that the ministry had made great strides in that direction over the last few years through the discussion of the most popular subjects addressed in Friday sermons and by imams. The Minister of Islamic Affairs revealed that the ministry had plans to carry out a study in the near future for a similar scheme for young preachers of sermons whereby the care program will begin during the university stage of their education and at a time before they begin their work at mosques, while also admitting them to special courses to qualify them for their work. Aal Al-Sheikh praised the efforts of the Ministry of Interior in its special attention to returnees from Guantanamo Prison, and the advisory committee's program which has earned international praise for its success, in addition to the work of the Special Security Forces in confronting the deviant group to ensure peace and security in the Kingdom and provide protection from their acts of destruction committed under the guise of Islam.
