Not too long ago (about two weeks ago) some French expatriates, living in Riyadh, were killed as they completed a trip to the ancient ruins of Mada'in Salih. They were not too far from Madinah, and it seems that some of them (the Muslims from the group) were going to stop by the Makkah to perform 'Umrah before returning to Riyadh.
They had completed a group camping trip near the ancient ruins. As far as I know they were a group of two families, men and women. There were nine of them in the group and two of those murdered were Father & Son. As they were near the villages outside of Mada'in Salih near the Madinah-Tabuk Road, they seem to have gotten lost and made the mistake of asking too many people for directions. They were soon to find out it was going to cost them their innocent lives.
The group were with another group of expatriates that were also camping with them. The other group of 19 Belgians left for Riyadh earlier. Perhaps the Muslims of this French Group wanted to make 'Umrah before returning (?). It seems somebody overheard them asking for directions when they were lost and decided to follow them and take them out.
As they took a rest along the road, a green Nissan Patrol (SUV) approached them. The men were seperated from the women and children and systematically executed. The women and children were left to watch the execution and to then survive their male relatives. Of the four, three died there at roadside and one was taken to the hospital where he subsequently died of his injuries. The Father & Son couple were muslims and their Janaazah (Funeral Prayer) was prayed at the Prophet's Masjid in Madinah. King Abdullah visited their female survivors and promised to take care of them however they required and to find the criminals that did this.
So far, the area that they were killed in has been on lock-down. There are checkpoints all around and there is an extensive search on for the criminals. There are different search parties from different regions, all using their expertise to find those guilty of the crime.
The Government, having taken testimonies from the female survivors, knows the car that the criminals used. It was a green Nissan Patrol, and they've been searching the Kingdom looking for the car. The government --perhaps through a process of elimination-- named two prime suspects and gave them a chance to hand themselves in:
- Abdullah Sayir Mu`awadh Al-Mahmadi
- His relative Nasir bin Lateef Al-Balawi
I haven't seen a worse case of blatant terrorism than this. These people are clearly not enemies, two of them were DEFINITELY Muslims. They came to this country to work and to be of benefit to the people of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Why, after seeing that they are Muslims, would you not only try to harm them, but also to follow them and meticulously single them out for execution? Not that it would have been ANY different were those four French men non-Muslims. No matter what, the leader of the Muslims of this country has given them a promise of safety and we as Muslims are obliged to honor that promise to the best of our ability.
I remember not too many years ago, when this huge campaign by the filthy Khawarij terrorists was launched against Western interests, they used to always tell people they are after the non-Muslims and that they are doing this for Islam.
- How in the world does this help Muslims or Islam in any way!?
- How will you aswer for Jean-Marc Bonnet and his 17-year-old son Mubarak!?
- They're both French-Moroccan Muslims whose blood was spilled!
Not only, do these criminals make extremely audacious promises, but they also end up doing the exact opposite f what they claim. In all the major campaigns that these terrorists have led, they've caused DIRECT harm to the Muslims. In all the bombings, shootouts and kidnappings, it's been a majority of Muslim casualties. They don't care what your religion is, they want to scare the Ambassador or Consul General of the affected nationality.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a memo a week and a half ago, to all the foreign embassies within the Kingdom highlighting the fact that it seems there is a general fear that these people are going to continue targetting foreign nationals. I remember the Minister of Interior, Prince Naif bin Abdil-Azeez sent a warning out to the terrorists a year or two ago, saying that if they didn't stop carrying out these different campaigns against the foreigners, that he would equip all foreigners with adequate arms to protect themself.
Basically, "If you idiots don't quit it, I'm gonna give them the chance to take you out before I take you out."
I hope they do find those murderers and it would be nice to see them get executed for the crime they committed.
If you've seen any foreign coverage of the story, please leave me a comment with a link, I'll update the blog post with the links, insha Allah.
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