Cleric Says Militants 'Lured by the Devil'
From Associated Press
January 20, 2005
MT. ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia — The country's top cleric told 2 million hajj
pilgrims Wednesday that some of Islam's own sons had been "lured by the
devil" to conduct violent attacks on the kingdom and charged that
non-Muslims were conspiring against people of the faith.
Sheik Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al Sheik, speaking at a mosque near Mt.
Arafat, lamented the violence waged by Muslim militants against Saudi
Arabia.
"The greatest affliction to strike the nation of
Islam came from some of its own sons, who were lured by the devil," the
cleric said. "They have called the nation infidel, they have shed
protected blood and they have spread vice on Earth, with explosions and
destruction and killing of innocents."
He pointedly asked of Muslim youth: "How would you meet God? With
innocent blood you shed or helped shed?"
He warned them not to be used by enemies of the nation to weaken it.
