Devil luring Islam's sons, cleric says

MOUNT ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia's top cleric told 2 million pilgrims from around the world Wednesday that Islam's greatest problems are that its own sons are being "lured by the devil" into militancy, and a hostile world is conspiring against it.

The pilgrims converged on Mount Arafat for the climax of the hajj, and their eyes welled with tears as they prayed on the most critical day of the annual pilgrimage the faithful believe will wipe away their sins.

Sheik Abdul-Aziz al-Sheik, speaking at a mosque near Mount Arafat on the climactic day, lamented the violence waged by Muslim militants against Saudi Arabia.

"The greatest affliction to strike the nation of Islam came from some of its own sons, who were lured by the devil," the cleric said. "They have called the nation infidel, they have shed protected blood and they have spread vice on Earth, with explosions and destruction and killing of innocents."

He pointedly asked of Muslim youths: "How would you meet God? With innocent blood you shed or helped shed?"

He warned them not to be used by enemies of the nation to weaken it.

"Oh, Allah, at thy service," the pilgrims chanted, as they swarmed on foot and in motor vehicles to the mountain plains, 12 miles southwest of Mecca.

Raising their hands to the sky, many pilgrims had tears in their eyes as they prayed on a day of soul searching and prayer interpreted as a foretaste of Judgment Day.

Men and women, otherwise not allowed to mix in the conservative kingdom, rubbed shoulders and stretched helping hands to each other as they climbed the uneven but gentle slope. Many already atop pushed and shoved to hug a pillar, standing where Islam's seventh-century prophet Muhammad gave his last sermon in the year 632, three months before his death.

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