Hala Al-Qahtani
Alsharq
The bitter experience of the past has taught us that when a government agency fails to shoulder its responsibility in the best form, it will not only harm most members of society but also have dangerous consequences as people will grumble and lose their confidence.
A government department’s negligence would lead to a series of incidents and accidents including death of innocent people like the catastrophes that have occurred during the past few years.
When the Education Ministry showed negligence in ensuring safety, many girl students and female teachers lost their lives in school fires. There were reports of roofs falling on students while beams of stadiums fell on heads of innocent students killing them instantly.
On the other hand, when health officials failed to shoulder their responsibilities a little girl was injected blood contaminated by AIDS, MERS coronavirus killed many people across the country, hospitals turned into homes of insects and medical errors led to the death of patients with minor diseases.
We have all seen the horrendous aftermath of Jeddah mayoralty’s negligence as a massive flood swallowed the whole city, killing many people including members of a whole family. We read endless stories of people falling to their death in open manholes in the streets.
These incidents take us to the issue of recent terrorist operations that ring warning bells about the danger of religious extremism and deviant ideologies. What is the Islamic Affairs Ministry’s role in the government’s continuing fight against terrorism?
We have seen the Interior Ministry changing its anti-terror policy focusing more on awareness programs with the support of print and visual media. But we did not see any substantial move by the Islamic Affairs Ministry in this respect. We have been expecting a greater role for the ministry in support of the Interior Ministry’s anti-terror campaign to enlighten the public and correct their wrong religious notions.
The Islamic Affairs Ministry might have done many things to confront extremism and terrorism but ordinary people have yet to see its impact. For the last two years we have been hearing that the ministry has recalled some mosque imams and khateebs to investigate on the comments they have made on the social media, supporting followers of the deviant ideology.
Showing sympathy with followers of the deviant ideology is a serious issue that demands criminal investigation and punitive action. But we have not seen any such imam or khateeb or Islamic propagator being banned from appearing on the podium of the mosque or the public media. The ministry has not explained the mechanism for such investigations. I believe that investigation into such issues should be carried out by an independent body or the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution.
We have not seen any action taken by the ministry against imams and khateebs who violate its rules and regulations. Some imams used to install speakers outside their mosques to give lectures loudly outside the prayer time. We have not seen the ministry taking any action against khateebs who use their Friday sermon to spread hatred, without considering its negative impact on the new generation.
We would like to know the ministry’s stand on some individuals who call themselves sheikhs and issue medical and religious rulings or fatwas on satellite channels as they affirm their personal beliefs that have no religious basis or nothing to do with medical science. We would like to understand the ministry’s new program to redress this rift and promote the concept of peace in Islam because people would not believe words when it is not supported by action.
Arab societies, especially Saudi society, are facing a lot of challenges and we should not show any leniency even to name them. The biggest pain is the one caused by treason. When a terrorist cheats his family members and pierces his poisoned dagger on the nation’s chest we cannot simply say that he was deceived by the deviant thought. On the other hand, by involving in such heinous crimes he joins the group of criminals and terrorists who opted to spill the blood of innocent people.
The state alone cannot face this challenge and we all have to join hands to fight terrorism and extremism. We are responsible to bring up our children in the right manner. The Ministry of Islamic Affairs should play a leading role in the fight against religious extremism, by promoting moderate Islamic teachings and generating confidence among the followers of Islamic faith.
