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Oudah denounces Bin Laden’s ideology |
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By KHALED AL-AWADH, Arab News
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BURAIDAH, Saudi Arabia.— In a major blow to the ideology of Osama Bin Laden and his followers in the kingdom, Sheikh Salman ibn Fahad Al-Oudah, a popular Saudi religious scholar, has criticized the way in which Bin Laden has ruined Islam’s global image.
"We, as scholars of Islam, reject what Osama does," Al-Oudah wrote in an open letter to Bin Laden posted on his Web site, www.islamtoday.com. "What have we gained from the destruction of a whole country such as Iraq and Afghanistan?" Al-Oudah said, adding that these wars have led to civil wars in the region. "Who benefits from turning countries like Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Morocco into insecure places?" he asked. Many experts considered the letter as a major setback to al-Qaeda’s ideology, as it comes from an influential Saudi scholar who is not part of the official religious establishment.
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