These statements by the oleaginous Adel al-Jubeir raise so many more questions than they answer. Saudi Arabia continues to pose as a foe of jihad terror while remaining one of its principal sponsors, so his words about ending the financing of terrorism ring hollow. Meanwhile, how did thousands of “extremist imams” come to be employed in Saudi mosques in the first place? Their “extremism” must not have been very detectable to the people around them, or in the mosques themselves. What exactly do the Saudis regard as “extremist,” in light of the fact that Saudi textbooks still contain such statements as the “Hour” will come after Muslims “kill the Jews”? Do the Saudis dub “extremism” simply opposition to the House of Saud, knowing that ever-credulous mainstream terror analysts in the U.S. will take their fight against “extremism” as a sign of their “moderation”?
“Saudi FM Al-Jubeir: Saudi Arabia ‘has fired thousands’ of extremist imams,” Arab News, September 9, 2017 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
MOSCOW: Saudi Arabia has dismissed several thousand imams from mosques for spreading extremism, Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir told Russian journalists in Moscow on Sunday.
“We will not let anyone spread the ideology of hatred, to finance that kind of ideology or terrorism,” he said.
“Our approach to this problem has been very strict: We … modernize our educational system in order to rule out the possibility of misinterpretation of texts.”
Al-Jubeir said Riyadh would cooperate with Moscow in the fight against terrorism, and many militants from both countries were fighting with Daesh….
“We are convinced that there are certain principles that all countries must stick to: Say ‘no’ to terrorism, the financing of terrorism, extremism and propaganda of hatred, and attempts to interfere in the domestic affairs of other states,” he said.