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Riyadh: Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz, Saudi Interior Minister, rejected US calls to dissolve the kingdom's religious police, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
"Our position on this issue is to reject such calls yesterday, today and tomorrow," he said.
Prince Nayef made these remarks in a press briefing after attending the concluding session of the Second Meeting of Senior Officials of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice here on Wednesday night.
Reports denied
Lauding the services of the religious police, Prince Nayef said: "It is an honour for Saudi Arabia to have such a religious commission working for the good of the people."
Prince Nayef also denied reports about setting up a national security court to try terrorists.
"There is nothing called National Security Court in the kingdom. There are discussions going on between the Supreme Judiciary Commission and the ministries of interior and justice to appoint full time judges to discuss such matters," he said.
'Silly agent'
Prince Nayef termed Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden as a silly intelligence agent.
"He is exploiting his sound financial position for creating Al Qaida," he said. Prince Nayef said Al Qaida was established by "others" and not Saudi Arabia. "How [can] we establish such an outfit while it has killed innocent [people] in our country?" he asked.
"Al Qaida exploited his [Bin Laden] wealth and put him in the front because he has Saudi citizenship, although he is originally from somewhere else.
"On his side is Al Zawahiri and their spiritual father is Abdullah Azzam and we know who they are and what their mentality is like," he said.
Commenting on the terrorist attacks in the kingdom, Prince Nayef said this group of people has an ideology which is not derived from Islamic teachings.
"These terrorists claim that we support the West but the reality is that our strategy stems from Islam and that they are the enemies of Allah," he said.
Targeted
Noting that Islam is the religion of justice, mercy and humanity, Prince Nayef said: "We were targeted by those who claim to be Muslims but they are executing the desires of the enemies of Islam."
He said Saudi Arabia will continue to abide by the Quran.
"The promotion of virtue and prevention of vice is a basic pillar of the Islamic nation," he said.
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