Saudi Arabia has fired many extremist imams: Foreign minister

Al Jubeir stated Riyadh would cooperate with Moscow in fight against terrorism

Several thousand imams have been dismissed from mosques for propagating extremism, Saudi 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… modernise our educational system in order to rule out the possibility of misinterpretation of texts,” he added.

Al-Jubeir stated that Riyadh would cooperate with Moscow in the fight against terrorism, and pointed out that many militants from the two nations were fighting with Da'esh.

“They pose a threat to our countries and to other states, where they come from. So we have a strong interest in cooperation.”



The foreign minister alleged that Qatar was sponsoring terrorism in an effort to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

“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.

“We expect those demands to be met by Qatar,” he added.

This article originally appeared on Arab News.