RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A jailed Muslim cleric renounced his calls for Islamic militants to attack non-Muslims during an interview aired on state-run TV Saturday. He was the third major Saudi clergyman to recant in less than a month.
Ahmad al-Khalidi urged militants to "lay down their arms, reintegrate into society, return to their brothers because they are not our enemies and we are not their enemies."
Al-Khalidi was one of three radical clerics who publicly praised Islamic militants believed linked to the May 11 attacks on Western residential compounds in Riyadh.
Saudi authorities arrested the three men in May. They were detained during an anti-terror sweep after the May attacks, which killed 35 people, including the nine suicide bombers. The three clerics were charged with advocating violence in sermons in mosques and on the Internet.
The other two, Ali al-Khudair and Nasser al-Fahd, recanted in similar TV appearances last month.
The reversals came amid a widespread government crackdown on Islamic militants and al-Qaida cells in Saudi Arabia following the May bombings and the Nov. 8 suicide attack on a housing compound that killed 17 people. Both attacks have been blamed on al-Qaida.
Al-Khalidi denounced the Nov. 8 attack, saying news of the bombing hit him "like a thunderbolt."
"No one can imagine anyone doing such an act," said al-Khalidi. "It’s a dishonorable and disgraceful act."
Al-Khalidi said the blood of non-Muslims should "be as protected as the blood of Muslims."
Like al-Khudair and al-Fahd, al-Khalidi said he had not been coerced into recanting. He said his decision came after a period of introspection in jail.
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