The Ministry of the Interior said yesterday that a wanted militant, Abdul Aziz ibn Rasheed Al-Inazi, a Saudi national, had been arrested. Al-Inazi was arrested after being injured by security forces in a gunbattle on Monday. The statement made clear that the gunbattle involved only one militant even though earlier reports had said the number was three. "The suspect is one of the promoters of deviant ideology. He had a major role in promoting takfeer ideology (branding other Muslims as infidels) and is a member of the so-called religious committee in the deviant group," the statement said. "Because the suspect has a university degree in religious studies, his colleagues have made him a major promoter of their sick ideology and have used his statements to justify their corruption and criminal acts," it added. The statement also said that the militant's preaching and statements were used to defame peaceful Islamic principles for evil purposes; he said it was permissible to shed non-Muslim blood and accused other Muslims of being infidels. The suspect also preached that in Islam it was permissible to kill security officers on religious grounds. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the suspect used the Internet as a tool to publish his statements.
| This looks like it might be something new. This is the first time I can recall the Soddies actually identifying the "deviants" as takfiri. |