“We will sack anyone who changes the religious content of his Friday sermon and turns into a political speech,” Shaikh Abdul Mohsin Bin Abdul Aziz Al Shaikh, the assistant undersecretary for mosque affairs, said.
“The Ministry of Islamic Affairs will assume its responsibilities and have a discussion with the preacher through a religious committee. If the preacher rectifies his sermons to avoid political issues, then he is forgiven and he is allowed to continue delivering them. However, if he refuses to change his orientations or pretends to have changed to avoid action, he will be dismissed,” the official said, quoted by local daily Okaz on Monday.
Mosques should be used to promote positive religious and social values and to remind worshippers of the significance of good deeds and words, he said.
“The ministry has often told preachers to keep away from political issues that are of no benefit to worshippers and are most likely to divide them,” he said.
“Mosques are meant to bring Muslims together and to unite their ranks so that society can benefit from their cohesion, not to divide them,” he said.
Gulf countries have put a greater focus on preachers’ sermons following the political developments in several Arab countries, particularly Egypt where the Muslim Brotherhood reached the pinnacle of political power following the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak.
However, the religious movement was in July removed from power and the Egyptian society has been sharply divided over the events.
Gulf countries, where large communities of Egyptians live and work, have been wary of a possible spillover of the divisions and standoffs at home and asked all mosque preachers to avoid referring to political issues in their sermons.
