As the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Gulf celebrate restoration of full diplomatic relations with the neighbouring Qatar, an American Muslim, Omar Suleiman has prayed for the release of Sheikh Salman Al Ouda.
Al Ouda, a prominent Saudi born scholar was arrested in mid-September 2017 for his alleged refusal to comply with an order by Saudi authorities to tweet a specific text to support the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar.
Family source quoted by Al Jazeera English said the respected Islamic scholar instead posted what looked like a reconciliatory tweet in Arabic, saying:
“May God harmonize between their hearts for the good of their people.”
Omar Suleiman, who made a tweet on Wednesday, January 6, believed that Sheikh Al Ouda, who prayed for the reconciliation being celebrated today by Saudi and its allies (Bahrain; UAE and Egypt), deserves to be released from prison.
He posted with screenshot of the post that landed Sheikh Al Ouda incarceration in Saudi Arabia’s prison;
“On a day where reconciliation was celebrated, praying for the release of an imprisoned scholar who prayed for it. May Allah unite him with his family soon, in health and prosperity. Ameen #salmanalodah.
https://twitter.com/omarsuleiman504/status/1346609054056112129?s=19
Muslim News recalled that Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhad had early this week announced that diplomatic relations have been restored between Qatar and four Arab states that imposed an embargo against it for three years.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar in 2017, accusing it of supporting terrorism.
In a swift reaction, Doha denied the accusation and rejected the conditions for ending the partial blockade, including closing the Doha-based Al Jazeera broadcast network and curbing relations with Muslim Brotherhood (MB).
