Al-Qalam 
The United Ulama Council of South Africa (UUCSA) has condemned the Saudis saying the haram music festival was meant to lure, enslave and fleece Muslims of their faith, identity and values, writes an Al Qalam Reporter.
In a rare rebuke, the United Ulama Council of South African (UUCSA) has strongly condemned the Saudi Government for hosting an international music festival to be held in Jeddah on July 18 – and all this at the start of the haj season and a mere 88km from Makkatulal Mukkaramah.
The shock announcement that the Saudis were hosting the Jeddah World Fest at the King Abdullah Sports Stadium – which will be beamed live to 100 countries around the world – has got Muslims worldwide scratching their heads in shock. They are also outraged.
The UUCSA body called on the Saudi regime “to respect the religious sensibilities of the global Muslim Ummah whose spiritual hearts at this time are focused as one as the Hujjaj are setting off on the most sacred journey of their lives towards the Haram of Makkah and its environs.”
This shock news has resulted in a flood of global anti-Saudi sentiments on social media, although many have restrained themselves from speaking out publicly for fear of possibly being banned by the regime in future Umrah or Haj visits.
In a bold statement, UUCSA said the Music festival is the Trojan horse of entertainment designed to contaminate the most sacred and sanctified lands in the Muslim world.” It is meant to lure, enslave and fleece Muslims of their faith, identity and sublime value system.”
It said the hosting of the festival during the start of the haj season was simply mind-boggling – and horrifying.
“In its attempt to shake off the image of religious extremism and placate those that demand a sanitized version of religion acceptable to the West, Saudi Arabia is importing the worst form of moral decadence to its shores. The violation of the sanctity of the Hajj Season by the Custodians of Hajj is simply egregious. The epicenter of Divine revelation will now be disseminating what is antithetical to what the “House of Allah” symbolizes, UUCSA said.
Citing a Quranic warning, UUCSA said: The music festival, may in reality, be validating the ‘decree of punishment’ as stated in the Quran: “But when it is Our will to destroy a community, We command those of its people who have lost themselves entirely in the pursuit of pleasures, (to desist) but they defiantly disobey therein and thus the decree of (punishment) is passed on it, then We completely destroy it.” (17:16)
Durban-based Islamic Lifestyle Solutions released a statement and asked” “Where now are scholars from Saudi Arabia who have been barking the bark of ‘Shirk’ and its detriments from the past century? Where is the fatwa from those scholars against their crown prince to denounce a totally haram festival within close proximity of the Holy Lands? These scholars are swift in writing articles denouncing ‘Mawlid’ gathering as innovations, yet their silence on a matter of such gargantuan proportions speak volumes about their true stance to promote and propagate the truth,” the statement read..
Meanwhile, American Pop superstar, Nicky Minaj, who was supposed to be the main performer, pulled out of the concert after coming under pressure from The Human Rights Foundation. She said she was pulling out because of her “support for the rights of women, the LGBTQ community and freedom of expression.
Durban-based political analyst, Dr Lubna Nadvi told Al Qalam: “The Saudi government’s efforts to portray itself as a liberal state recently allowing western forms of entertainment and recreation while it pursues the ongoing repression of its citizens in other ways must surely be a supreme irony not lost on the rest of us Muslims around the world.
“In a strange way, Nicky Minaj pulling out of this concert is perhaps the best thing that could have happened. By so doing she has shown the Saudi government a mirror which it must now look into and face its less than flattering side”.
Dr Feisal Suleman, chairperson of South African Muslim Network (SAMNET) told Al Qalam that the “Saudis have been on a campaign to erase all previous Islamic History, and to only keep the history of the Bin Saud family”. He added that the Saudis are trying to so-called “modernize” the Kingdom and dancing to the tunes of Trump, at huge costs to the Ummah.
