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Al Qaeda will not end with the death of Bin Laden – Saudi Interior Ministry | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat – A senior Saudi official has confirmed that Riyadh did not receive any request to receive the body of Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, following his death during a US raid targeting him. He also stressed that America is aware that Saudi Arabia revoked Osama Bin Laden’s citizenship long ago.

Prince Ahmed Bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Deputy Minister of the Interior, answering a question put to him by Asharq Al-Awsat, said that “the terrorist Al Qaeda organization will not end with the death of its leader Osama Bin Laden, who was killed by American forces last week in Pakistan.” He also stressed that Riyadh had not received any official US request to receive the body of Bin Laden, adding that the Al Qaeda leader “was not a Saudi citizen.”

Prince Ahmed Bin Abdulaziz also said that “I have no official information that the US made an official request to surrender the body of Bin Laden [to Saudi Arabia]; the US is aware that Bin Laden has not been a Saudi Arabian citizen for a long period of time, and we have no direct concern in this issue.”

He added that the Bin Laden family is present in Saudi Arabia, and “they are the ones suffering from Osama Bin Laden’s actions” adding that “the family has renounced him and his works.”

Prince Ahmed Bin Abdulaziz’s comments came during a press conference held on Tuesday following a general assembly meeting of the Saudi Alzheimer’s Disease Association, which is presided over by Prince Ahmed Bin Abdulaziz. During this press conference, the Saudi Arabian Deputy Minister of the Interior said that Al Qaeda has no presence within Saudi Arabia, stressing that “evil is receding.”

He also said that “I do not think that anybody who says ‘there no God but Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger’ [i.e. any Muslim], desires evil against the people of Saudi Arabia, which is the home of Islam.”

He asked “how can the country of Islam, Muslims, and the Holy Mosque, be the target of terrorists who claim to be Muslims?” He added “if they do so, then they have deviated from Islam.”

He concluded by stressing that suicide is against Islam, and that suicide bombers “will be in hell in the hereafter.”

Prince Ahmed Bin Abdulaziz described terrorism as “the great evil” and stressed that “it is the mission of the Ministry of the Interior to ward off evil, whatever its source, and there can be no doubt that terrorism is a great evil that must be resisted.” He added that “we hope that young deviants will renounce this evil…as those who kill innocents will go to hell. All efforts are being exerted to combat anything that harms our security and destabilizes tour peaceful society.”