Saudi Arabia to stop funding mosques in foreign countries

25 Jan 2019; MEMO: Former Saudi minister of justice, Mohammed Bin Abdul-Karim Issa, has announced that his country will stop funding mosques in foreign countries, Arabi21.com reported on Friday.

According to the Swiss newspaper, Le Matin Dimanche, Saudi Arabia is to establish local administrative councils for each mosque, in cooperation with the local authorities, in order to hand over these mosques to “secure hands”.

The minister added: “The time has come to hand over the Geneva Mosque to a Swiss administrative council that represents Muslims in the area. It should have an elected cleric.”

He disclosed that Saudi Arabia is to take the same measures with all the mosques all over the world, referring to “security reasons”.

It is worth noting that the minister led a delegation on Thursday to visit the Auschwitz camp on the 75th anniversary of its liberation. He honoured the Jewish victims of the Holocaust who perished during WWII.