Saudi King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz yesterday marked the start of Eid al-Adha with a call on Muslims to disavow terrorism, which they said was taboo in Islam.
"The meanings of the Eid in Islam are many. They include the Muslim's sympathizing with the needs of fellow Muslims ... and cooperating with them in what is good ... away from excess and extremism," they said in a joint message on the occasion of the Feast of the Sacrifice, Islam's most important holiday.
Muslims should embark united on "a course that disavows terrorism, which spreads mayhem and seeks destruction and was forbidden by Islam," said the message to Muslims reported by official media.
King Fahd and Abdullah, de facto ruler of the oil-rich kingdom, made similar remarks in their Eid al-Adha message last year.
Thousands of pilgrims began one of the final rituals of the hajj early yesterday, throwing seven pebbles at large stone pillars that symbolize the devil.
The majority of the 2 million pilgrims who have come here from around the world were to perform the rite around midday, but the ones who came out just after midnight were taking advantage of a fatwa, or religious edict, issued last year that allowed the stoning before the dawn prayers.
"We were worried about the crowds and we had heard some real horror stories so we feel much better that we made it here early," said Ahmed Sodikin, 56, from Bandung, Indonesia.
The fatwa is in line with extra precautions that Saudi officials have taken to prevent the deadly stampedes that have marred the ritual in the past. Last year, 244 pilgrims died in a stampede; 1,426 died in a similar fashion in 1990.
Most pilgrims were expected after noon. After pelting the pillars, they are expected to return to Mecca, about 1.5km away, to circle the holy Kaaba in the last ritual of the pilgrimage.
Saudi Arabia's top cleric, speaking at a mosque near Mount Arafat, lamented the violence waged by Muslim militants against Saudi Arabia and complained that that a hostile world is conspiring against Islam.
"The greatest affliction to strike the nation of Islam came from some of its own sons, who were lured by the devil," Sheik Abdul-Aziz al-Sheik 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 added.
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.
Since May 2003, Saudi Arabia has been battling a wave of terror by presumed Islamist extremists from al-Qaeda, who have killed more than 100 people and wounded hundreds more in a spate of bombings and shootings.
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS