saudi clergy condemns debut of human rights group it looks like ben baz s mind and heart are also blind not only his eyes i used to respect him today i lost the minimal amount of respect that i struggled to keep for him to all muslim netters this is the same guy who gave a fatwah that saudi arabia can be used by the united ststes to attack iraq that fatwah is as legitimate as this one with that kind of clergy it might be an islamic duty to separate religion and politics if religion means official clergy cairo egypt upi the cairo based arab organization for human rights aohr thursday welcomed the establishement last week of the committee for defense of legal rights in saudi arabia and said it was necessary to have such groups operating in all arab countries the london based and saudi owned al sharq al awsat daily newspaper reported thursday in a dispatch from riyadh that the higher council of ulema muslim scholars on wednesday had unanimously proclaimed the formation of the group illegitimate and unacceptable in a statement issued in the saudi capital the council saudi arabia s highest religious authority said it unanimously proclaims illegitimate the creation of this committee and the inadmissibility of endorsing it because the kingdom of saudi arabia is guided by god s sharia law and the islamic courts are widespread nationwide the statement said no one in the kingdom is prevented from taking grievances to those courts or to other concerned authorities and that the authors of the bulletin announcing the founding of the committee are well aware of this the council of senior clergymen which ended its th session tuesday under chairmanship of sheikh abdel aziz ben baz warned that the formation of the group will have serious consequences but did not elaborate declarations and treaties protecting human rights particulalrly those concerning discrimination against women
