The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia condemned terror attacks as un-Islamic on Friday in a statement prior to the launch of a conference on international cooperation to combat terrorism and terrorism financing. “Terrorism is criminal and kills innocent people,” said Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bin Abdullah Aal Al-Sheikh in a statement reported by the Saudi Press Agency. “It threatens security, spreads terror and sows discord in society.” According to Aal Al-Sheikh, such acts are “forbidden in Islamic Law”. “It is necessary to fight the attempts of those who try to associate terrorism with Islam and Muslims in order to distort the religion and attack its leadership role in the world,” he said. “The Kingdom has been engaged for years in combating terrorism and so has particular experience in fighting terrorism and its financing,” he said. “Terrorism is a criminal act serving only to shed the blood of innocent people and spread panic and chaos in order to destabilize societies.” The Grand Mufti made the statement ahead of Saturday's conference in Riyadh entitled, “The Legal Framework of Anti-Terrorism and its Sources of Financing”, which is gathering 11 experts from around the world to look at the fight against terrorism from judicial and methodological perspectives. Held with the approval of Prince Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, the three-day gathering has been organized by the Commission for Investigation and Public Prosecution and the United Nations Bureau which handles crime and drugs in the Middle East, and will focus on improvements to judicial criminal systems to cope with new methods of terrorism, the relationship between terrorism and other patterns of organized crime across national borders, and ensuring human rights in the fight against terrorism.
