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Meanwhile, Saudi families refused to hold mourning gatherings for their sons who were killed in troubled places outside of the kingdom. The ‘confusion’ that was sparked by IS’ recent expansion saw the proliferation of websites selling shirts carrying slogans that called for jihad and glorified IS. Advisory Committee member Sheikh Abdullah al-Suwailem refused to classify those affiliated with terrorist groups as ‘criminals,’ claiming that pressure had led them to join these groups in the absence of guidance.

Some of the families of those killed fighting outside of Saudi Arabia expressed their ‘joy,’ refusing to show grief over the deaths of their sons. Preachers and sheikhs considered this ideology ‘the reason for terrorism,’ saying, ‘It harms the reputation of the Islamic religion.’ They stressed that those who go to these places of conflict are in violation of the religious authority, which must be followed. They therefore concluded that their deaths are not a form of martyrdom, as their families think. The families are overcome with emotion and distribute sweets and refuse to mourn, show sadness or cry, considering those killed to be martyrs.

Abdul Moneim al-Mushawwah, the director of the Sakina Campaign, which operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Da’wah and Guidance in Saudi Arabia, told Al-Hayat: ‘In the coming period, the campaign plans to work on a manual survey, through which we can determine the extent to which the Saudi public sympathizes with what happened recently in Iraq, namely the declaration of the caliphate.’ He added: ‘This survey will target a specific segment in a particular time period, ranging between one and two months. It will be supervised by an academic to meet the required conditions.’

In a related context, Sheikh Abdullah al-Suwailem, another Advisory Committee member, refused to classify those affiliated with terrorist groups such as IS and Jahbat al-Nusra as criminals.” Read more.

Flashback: Saudis Export Anti-Christian and Anti-Jewish Textbooks that Continue to Fuel Intolerance and Violence Around the Globe – “Textbooks used in Saudi Arabia’s schools contain virulent forms of anti-Christian and anti-Jewish bigotry that continue to fuel intolerance and violence around the globe, says a new report. The problem is far greater than the five million students in Saudi Arabia who use these texts every day, said Nina Shea, director of the Washington-based Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom. ‘Because of the Saudis’ great oil wealth, it is able to disseminate its textbooks far and wide,’ she wrote in the report, Ten Years On. ‘[These textbooks] are posted on the Saudi Education Ministry’s website and are shipped and distributed free by a vast Saudi-sponsored Sunni infrastructure to many Muslim schools, mosques and libraries throughout the world. ‘This is not just hate mongering, it’s promoting violence,’ she said in an interview. It is exporting terrorism through textbooks.” Read more.