Saudi Grand Mufti: Saudis should not enlist in foreign jihads

From Reuters via Asharq Alawsat:

Saudi Arabia's leading cleric said on Monday Saudis should not join jihad outside the kingdom, in a warning over Saudis going to fight U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

As the report continued:

"Our youth have become a commodity bought and sold by (Middle) Eastern and Western agencies ... they became tools carrying out heinous acts," Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Aziz Al al-Sheikh said in a religious edict, or fatwa, published on the official SPA news agency.

So why now is the Sheikh saying this only now?

"I decided to say this after it was clear that over several years Saudis have been leaving for jihad. They did this because they are passionate about their religion but they are not wise enough to know right from wrong," he said.

While Reuters took the occasion impugn the Sheikh's motives for issuing the statement:

Saudi Arabia has been embarrassed by the idea that Saudis have become fodder for suicide bomb attacks against civilians in Iraq and fear that militants could return to Saudi Arabia to wage their jihad against the Saudi government.

Tariq Alhomayed, an editor at Asharq Alawsat gave the Sheikh considerably more credit:

Sheikh Abdulaziz had previously warned of the danger of corrupting our youth....prior to September 11, the Mufti issued a fatwa banning suicide operations, which caused a huge uproar....

The Mufti’s fatwa stated things as they are, it was neither slanted nor hesitant; however most importantly, it hit on an important nerve in terrorist operations; its funding. The sheikh explicitly said, “I advise caution to those with financial means so that their money does not end up harming Muslims.” This is particularly more pronounced because it coincides with the time of giving Zakat [during the month of Ramadan], and scores have been deceived into financially backing the merchants of death and destruction...

Saudi’s Mufti was never one to propagate such [terrorist] ideas or call for a false jihad or adopt a political position. It has also proved that the traditional sheikhs, no matter how different their social fatwas might be, were always right to have stressed the importance of cooperation within society whilst fending off sedition and preventing the manipulation of the state at the hands of those who seek to wreak havoc. This is especially so since we have witnessed the extent of the corruption and mischief in the land practiced in the Arab and Muslim world today, which happens at everyone’s expense under a religious pretext to serve political goals.

Let's hope he's not just a figurehead but has some real street credibility.