Saudi Council designates the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization

Shafaq News / The Council of Senior Scholars in Saudi Arabia designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization that does not represent Islam. 

"The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist group having personal goals that contradict with Islam principles and spread violence and strife," the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted the Council saying.

"The group showed no interest in the Islamic beliefs, but rather it is striving to reach power, no one should belong to it or sympathize with it." It added.

According to Reuters, Riyadh fears the Brotherhood, whose Sunni Islamist doctrines challenge the Saudi principle of dynastic rule, has tried to build support inside the kingdom since the Arab Spring revolutions.

The Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, says it is a non-violent movement and denies any relationship to violent insurgencies waged by al Qaeda and Islamic State militants.

“We will remain ... steadfast in our work in accordance with our moderate and peaceful thinking,” the Brotherhood said in a statement on its website.