RIYADH: The Shoura Council gave full backing Monday to the recent statement by the Board of Senior Ulema reemphasizing the “importance of maintaining security in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and disregarding misguided calls to demonstrate and organize protests and marches”. “These acts go against the principles of the pure Islamic Shariah by which the Kingdom, its leadership and people, are governed,” the Shoura Council said. President of the Shoura Council Abdullah Aal Al-Sheikh said that the “values and culture of Saudi society do not accept such disruptive events”. “They take the national course on which all are agreed off its path and in directions violating the sanctity of people and public and private property,” Aal Al-Sheikh said. “They halt the wheel of the full development which the state has adopted across the country and have numerous other negative effects.” The Shoura President cited Sunday's statement from the Board of Senior Scholars, which said that the Kingdom has as its foundation “the Holy Qur'an, the Prophet's Sunnah, the pledge of allegiance, the unity of the Muslim community and obedience”. “Every individual needs to ensure, as a son/daughter of this nation, to preserve the security and stability with which the Kingdom is blessed,” Aal Al-Sheikh said. “Reform and advice is not achieved through demonstrations and ways that incite discord in the Muslim community, and the senior scholars of this country in both earlier and recent times are unanimous in that they are forbidden, and warn against them.” He said, “Everyone should abide by the matchless Saudi approach of an open-door policy and direct written address to the leader or any official for any request or complaint”. Aal Al-Sheikh further urged government bodies to “swiftly carry out the recent orders to tackle urgent issues”, the most prominent of which, he said, were “unemployment and housing”.
