Following are excerpts from an interview with Saudi cleric Abd Al-Aziz Al-Fawzan, which aired on Daleel TV on July 9, 2010:
Abd Al-Aziz Al-Fawzan: This globalization, which is supported by the political, economic, and cultural hegemony of the West, and which spreads Western values – which run counter, in many ways, to true Islamic values, conveyed by all the divine revelations... This globalization cannot succeed. Indeed, it has failed, as you can see, despite all the political, economic, and cultural means of hegemony at its disposal...
Interviewer: How did it fail exactly?!
Abd Al-Aziz Al-Fawzan: It failed spectacularly.
Interviewer: What do you mean? Many would disagree with you, myself included. Let’s step out to the street right now, you and me, and we will see all the McDonalds, the Hardee’s, and the Pizza Hut. All the manifestations of Western globalization are there.
Abd Al-Aziz Al-Fawzan: I don’t care, brother, if they spread their fast food restaurants...
Interviewer: And their clothes and fashions...
Abd Al-Aziz Al-Fawzan: I don’t care very much about that. In principle, these things are permissible. If only globalization was limited to that, and to luxury cars and new airplanes. This is all fine, and we should invest it to our advantage. These are the Western means that enriched the world, and we should benefit from them. The problem lies with what accompanies these modern and economic achievements – the values and the culture that run counter to those of Islam.
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Some people want to Westernize our society in any possible way, but they know that if they advocate fornication, forbidden sexual relations, and homosexuality, the people would stone them. So what do they do? They come up with these deviant fatwas, which lay the ground for these crimes and abominations.
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