Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria, MMWG, has said that the purported ban of live coverage of Tarawih prayers from Masjid Haram in Makkah and the Holy Prophet Muhammad Mosque in Madina during the forthcoming holy month of Ramadan, would deny the Muslims in the entire world the great spiritual opportunity and benefit they have been enjoying for several decades.
Reacting to the ban claimed to have been imposed by the crowned Prince of Saudi Arabia, King Muhammad Bin Salman, the group described it as disservice to Islam.
MMWG, in a statement issued by its National Coordinator, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi, called on Saudi Arabian authorities to rescind the order without further delay; describing the live coverage as “a spiritually rewarding exercise that promote spiritual uprightness, consciousness and awareness; the denial of which would be felt adversely by the entire Muslim world.”
“As the whole world looks forward to this year’s Holy Month of Ramadan, thousands of believers would come together from the world-over to worship in two holy mosques in Makkah and Madina as part of Umra/Lesser Hajj in Saudi Arabia, denying millions of muslims the world-over the benefit of participating in the live coverage of the spiritual activities including spiritually rewarding sermons to be delivered by several Imams of the holy mosques would be tantamount to spiritual denigration that remains questionable,” the group stated.
MMWG described the news as “shocking to the media world as Ramadan and Hajj remains most significant religious occasions that Saudi Arabia should give highest publicity they deserve because of its spiritual, economic, social and cultural values.”
It, therefore, called on the Muslim World League, MWL and Organization of Islamic Conference, OIC to admonish Saudi Arabian authorities to desist from actions and steps that would always subject it to avoidable criticism.
