Saudi Cleric Condemns October 7th, Advocates for Hostages

Mohammed Al-Issa: ‘October 7 was a crime, terrorist attacks ‘cannot be accepted by Muslims at all.’

By JNS
One of Saudi Arabia’s top religious figures gathered for a gala dinner in Washington, D.C., with as many as 150 Jewish, Christian, Muslim and political leaders to discuss promoting greater peace in the Middle East.

Mohammed Al-Issa, a former justice minister in Saudi Arabia and now secretary general of the Muslim World League (MWL), said on Tuesday that “Oct. 7 was a crime” and that the terrorist attacks “cannot be accepted by Muslims at all.”

He said that “we cannot justify the holding of hostages and call for the immediate release of all the hostages,” adding “we want the war in Gaza to end and all the hostages to be freed.”

The MWL is the world’s largest non-government Muslim organization.

Attendees at the interfaith gala, held at the National Postal Museum on Capitol Hill, included Rabbi David Saperstein, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom and director emeritus of the Religious Actions Center of Reform Judaism; and Jonathan Kessler, a former senior executive at AIPAC who now works as CEO/founder at Heart of a Nation.