A galaxy of prominent Saudi scholars has spoken out against insults by a Saudi preacher for Iraq’s top Shiite authority Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, asserting that sowing division between Sunnis and Shiites plays into the hands of Islam’s enemies.
“Muslims should have a candid dialogue without directing insults and affronts,” Sheikh Abd Al-Muhsin Al-’Abikan told Islmonline.net.
Muhammad Al-’Arifi, an imam at Riyadh’s central mosque, had delivered a sermon about the Houthis Shiite rebel group, which is fighting the Yemeni government and has clashed with Saudi troops.
He criticized the Houthis for choosing Sistani as a mediator to help solve the political stand-off, dismissing the revered Shiite scholar as an “infidel and debauched.”
In a related development both Lebanese Shiite groups Hezbollah and Amal criticized the Saudi cleric . Source: islamonline.net