The Friday sermon read by the Imam of the Great Mosque of Mecca, Abdulrahman al-Sudais, in Saudi Arabia last week shocked several parts of the Arab and Islamic world.
In his sermon, the imam campaigned for tolerance towards non-Muslims, and he also positively shared the Prophet Muhammad’s relationship with the Jews.
However, by many, the sermon was thought to carry a hidden political message.
This is because their neighboring country, the United Arab Emirates, has just announced the normalization of diplomatic relations with Israel.
So, what the priest did was seen as a step that was seen as controversial.
Social media networks in the Arabian peninsula were filled with criticism.
The words that come from the sermon are accused of having an agenda of preparing the ground for Saudi Arabia in order to help normalize its relationship with Israel.
This is “the normalization and betrayal of the holy pulpit,” criticized Egyptian Islamic scholar Mohammed al-Sagheer on Twitter.
