Saudi King Vows to Fight Extremists with an "Iron Fist"

WASHINGTON, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz today recommitted the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to "strike with an iron fist" the terror groups that seek to recruit youths to "extremism and violence," and pledged efforts to "distance them from masterminds of misleading ideas."

In a message to the people of Saudi Arabia and all the world's Muslims on the occasion of the Eid Al-Fitr, King Salman urged Muslims to unite and condemned terrorism and extremism, stressing their contradiction to Islam.

"The sedition witnessed in the Islamic world today requires all of us to exert the utmost effort to unify our voice, close ranks and work together to solve the problems of the Islamic nation, and achieve victory for its issues," said King Salman. "However, the biggest challenge facing our Islamic nation is how to keep our youth, the real wealth and hope of the future, away from the dangers facing them – particularly extremism and violence – and distance them from masterminds of misleading ideas that force them to behave in extraordinary ways that contradict the principles of our Islamic religion and the pillars and values of our Islamic societies."

King Salman vowed to spare no effort to crush extremists that use misleading messages to entice impressionable young people to join them.

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is determined, God willing, to strike with an iron fist those who target the minds and attitudes of our youth," he said.

Eid al-Fitr, a feast day commemorating the end of Ramadan, begins tomorrow. Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, is the month in which the first verses of the Qur'an were revealed as a guide to mankind. Saudi Arabia occupies a special place in the Islamic world, for it is towards Makkah and Islam's most sacred shrine, the Ka'abah, that Muslims throughout the world turn devoutly in prayer five times a day.

SOURCE Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Information Office