Sheikh, the Grand Mufti of the Kingdom, has added his voice to those condemning last Sunday's arson attack on Al-Jouf Literary Club and the death threat made to the club's chairman, describing them as “abominable and wrong”. “It is wrong for Muslims to attack state or individual property,” Al-Sheikh told Al-Hayat Arabic daily on Tuesday. “This is an injustice against the people…. and it is impermissible for us to bring up our young on crime, arson, enmity and evil, and to commit injustices on people. We should instead nurture in ourselves love and goodness.” The Grand Mufti continued by saying that the money of Muslims was “inviolable” whether public or privately-owned, but that public money was “even more so”. On the death threat to the chairman of the club, Al-Sheikh said it was “a sin and a crime”. “The blood of Muslims is to be respected, and it is impermissible to threaten to kill anyone,” he said. “The shedding of the blood of Muslims is haram (impermissible).” Sunday's fire at Al-Jouf Literary Club – the second in under a year – tore through offices and a tent for cultural activities, and was preceded two hours earlier by a telephone text death threat to club chairman Ibrahim Al-Humaid. “Do you know that your murder is halal (permissible)? Within a few hours you'll be killed like your neighbor Hamoud and his colleagues,” the message read, in reference to Hamoud Al-Suwailem, one of several Al-Jouf police officers killed by terrorists in incidents in 2003. Abdul Aziz Khoja, Minister of Culture and Information, has said that authorities are working to identify the culprits, but described it as “an individual act”. Speculation has abounded, however, that the acts may have been provoked by a club magazine editorial by Al-Humaid calling for people to unite in the face of the “common enemies of the nation and the Ummah”, listed as “Israeli and domestic enemies like poverty, lack of development, technological backwardness and cultural illiteracy”. The editorial concluded by describing those factors as having “begun to recede and make way for a new dawn”. Grand Mufti Al-Sheikh was preceded in his condemnations by member of the Board of Senior Ulema and the Supreme Judicial Council Ali Bin Abbas Al-Hakami. Saudi Gazette reported on Tuesday the sheikh as describing the culprits as “sinners”. “It was a corrupt action and the perpetrators deserve severest punishment,” Al-Hakami said. “Who gives them the right to threaten to kill a Muslim? On what grounds do they conclude that killing of a Muslim is permissible?” __
