Sheikh Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis, imam of Islam's most holy mosque, Al-Haram in Mecca, holds one of the most prestigious posts in Sunni Islam. Following the terrorist attacks in London, Al-Sudayyis's controversial June 2004 visit to the U.K. for the opening of the London Muslim Centre has been headlined in the British media.
A month before his visit to London last year, Sheikh Al-Sudayyis had been barred from Canada, where he planned to give a series of lectures. The ban followed a report about his sermons by MEMRI that included Al-Sudayyis calling Jews "the scum of the earth" and "monkeys and pigs" who should be "annihilated." Other enemies of Islam were referred to by Sheikh Al-Sudayyis as "worshippers of the cross" and "idol worshipping Hindus" who must be fought. [1]
In his Friday sermon of July 15, 2005, Sheikh Al-Sudayyis said: "Oh Allah, liberate our Al-Aqsa Mosque from the defilement of the occupying and brutal Zionists… Oh Allah, punish the occupying Zionists and their supporters from among the corrupt infidels. Oh Allah, scatter and disperse them, and make an example of them for those who take heed."
It should be noted that the website www.alminbar.net, which regularly posts Al-Sudayyis's sermons, edited out the above segment, as did the Saudi Gazette, which regularly reports on his sermons.
MEMRI TV recorded the sermon from the live broadcast on Saudi Channel 1, and it can be viewed at http://memritv.org/clip/en/765.htm.
The following are excerpts from two sermons – one of Friday, July 15, 2005, and the other of Friday, April 2, 2004 (to view this clip, see http://memritv.org/clip/en/26.htm).
July 15, 2005
Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon by Dr. Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis, aired on Saudi Arabia's Channel 1 on July 15, 2005. [2]
"With all the violence and bombings that today's world has suffered, and with all the terrorism and destruction which have robbed the world of sleep, which are considered by all intelligent and honorable people as criminal, which are prohibited by all esteemed Muslim scholars, and whose negative effects afflict the Islamic nation – one of the most dangerous wars to afflict the Islamic nation and to cause atrophy and decadence to nations and civilizations is the war against virtue and to promote vice.
"The noble Islamic law deals with all issues. One of the most important issues is protecting women's honor – indeed, defending families, and protecting societies and generations from the flames of vice, from the removal of the veil, from the volcanoes of debauchery, from the storms of evil, from the armies of harlotry, from the voracity of pleasure, and from bestial libertinism.
"The most dangerous weapon which the enemy has raised against us – with which he tore to pieces our established order, and with which he soiled our spiritual and social purity, is the terrible deluge of all manner of vice, which is considered a form of moral terrorism against the values, ideals, and virtues of the Islamic nation.
"[This war is waged] by means of the licentious satellite channels and the vile spiderwebs of the Internet, whose gloom fills the sky with darkness and spreads its stench in all directions, and by means of those hidden computer discs, which are the cauldron of sin, consumed by the old, young, and inexperienced, while fathers, mothers, and educators are heedless and negligent.
"Oh brethren in faith, morning has dawned upon all with eyes to see, without ambiguity or falsehood. It has become clear that the enemies of virtue, the marshals of licentiousness, and the heroes of sexual promiscuous pleasures have a most ill-fated hope and aspiration to export sexual diseases and vice in the form of a plague, which shall crush the fortresses of the Muslims, the fortresses of honor and virtue, and they hope that [Muslims] will abandon the castles of chastity, honor, and virtue, which have been effaced by time, and have become a matter of the past.
"Oh, Allah, heal our sick, have mercy on our dead, release our prisoners, and save our Al-Aqsa Mosque. Oh Allah, liberate our Al-Aqsa Mosque from the defilement of the occupying and brutal Zionists. Oh Allah, make it high and mighty until Judgment Day. Oh Allah, punish the occupying Zionists and their supporters from among the corrupt infidels. Oh Allah, scatter and disperse them, and make an example of them for those who take heed."
April 2, 2004: "The History of the [Jewish] People is Written in Black"
Following are excerpts from an April 2, 2004 Friday sermon by Sheikh Al-Sudayyis that was broadcast live on Saudi Arabia's Channel 1: [3]
"The history of the [Jewish] people is written in black ink, and has included a series of murders of the prophets, the Mujaheedin, and righteous people. This, although the book [that] descended upon Moses is all mercy. Allah has said: 'And [it]is preceded by the Book of Moses, which was a guide and a mercy for people before him…' So where is this mercy in all this barbarity, devoid of moral and human values? But maybe it is the beginning of their end.
"Oh brothers in the land of missions and the cradle of valor, oh sons of brave Mujaheedin, oh descendents of conquering heroes…You have revived the hopes of this nation through your blessed Jihad. By Allah, be patient until, with Allah's help, one of two good things will be awarded you: either victory or martyrdom. Our hearts are with you; our prayers are dedicated to you. The Islamic nation will not spare money or effort in support of your cause, which is the supreme Muslim cause, until the promise made by Allah, who never breaks a promise, is fulfilled."
[1] See http://www.memri.org/bin/media.cgi?ID=85004.
[2] See MEMRI TV Clip # 765 "Friday Sermon in Mecca's Al-Haram Mosque by Imam Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayis: Oh Allah, Punish the Occupying Zionists and Their Supporters from Among the Corrupt Infidels" http://memritv.org/clip/en/765.htm.
[3] See MEMRI TV Clip # 26 "Imam Sudayyis in a Friday Sermon at Al-Haram Mosque in Mecca: Either Victory or Martyrdom," http://memritv.org/clip/en/26.htm.
