A renowned Saudi Islamic international lecturer, another
Arab religious attache shot injured in Zamboanga City

A prominent Saudi Islamic religious scholar and another Arab religious attache have been shot and wounded during a forum at a university gym in the predominantly Christian city of Zamboanga in the southern Philippines, authorities said.

Dr. A'id Al-Qarni, a renowned international lecturer and author of many motivational books on Islam; and Sheik Turki Assaegh, a religious attaché of the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, were rushed to the Western Mindanao State University for bullet wounds at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Senior Inspector Helen Galvez, spokesperson of Zamboanga City Police Office, told Zamboanga-based reporters the two Saudi nationals were shot while on board their vehicle outside the university gymnasium.

But Sheikh Abdulwakil Tanjilil, a Filipino deputy mufti of Region 9 and Palawan, also told reporters the victims have just rendered a free lecture in the Islamic Symposium inside the university gym when the incident occurred.

Galvez told local television, radio and print reporters that the Arabs were shot with a .45-caliber pistol. “We are investigating this incident.

It was unknown how the gunman managed to sneak a gun through the strict security at the university gate.

Witnesses, who attended the forum, said they were shot at when Al-Qarni opened the window of their vehicle to bid goodbye to the seminar attendees and that the suspects fired several shots.

Al-Qarni was hit in his right shoulder, left arm and chest, while Assaegh was hit in his right thigh and left leg, according to media reports.
Al-Qarni and Assaegh were immediately taken to the Zamboanga Arturo Eustaquio Medical Center (ZAEC) for treatment. One of victim escorts, a member of the Police Security and Protection Group, who were detailed as close-in security, managed to fire back at the suspects and killed one of them.

Two suspected individuals are in the custody of the local police for questioning, Galvez told local reporters here.

The police have yet to determine the motive behind the attack. Investigations are ongoing to establish the identity of the slain suspect.

ABS-CBN News reported several participants of the forum were given medical aid after they suffocated inside the university gymnasium. Some of them blamed the authorities for the alleged security lapses.

The Ulama Council of Zamboanga Peninsula, which organized the symposium, said the activity was participated by more than 8,000 Muslims coming from different parts of Mindanao.

Meanwhile, Ma. Isabelle Climaco-Salazar ordered the police to thoroughly investigate the shooting and its motive.

There was no immediate statement from the Saudi Embassy on the daring attack on the Arab scholars, and neither from the Aquino government nor the Department of Defense about the report on the incident.

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Aaidh ibn Abdullah al-Qarni born on January 1, 1959, is a Saudi Islamic Muslim scholar, author, and activist.

It also wrote Al-Qarni is best known for his self-help book La Tahzan (Don't Be Sad), which is aimed at Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Al Qarni was recently sued for plagiarism. After being found guilty of stealing the work of female writer Salwa Aededan, al Qarni's book La Tayass (Do not Despair) was banned and blacklisted by Saudi authorities.

He responded that he was following a precedent of plagiarism by other Islamic scholars. Samir Faraj, an Egyptian poet, has also claimed that al-Qarni stole his book Shuara Katalhom Shirahom (Poets Killed by Their Poems) and published it the name Kasaid Katalat Ashabaha (Poems That Murdered Their Writers).

Also, a report of Al Jacinto of the Manila Times, which cited the 2012 report by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, al-Qarni had been blocked by the Department of Homeland Security in the United States from attending a national Islamist conference in Chicago.

It said the 57-year old al-Qarni had been removed from his flight from Saudi Arabia despite having a US visa, and that he appeared to be on the US “no-fly list.”

The report said he has advocated jihad in the past, and that his preaching on the subject has been described as influential among al-Qaida followers. (See link: which can be accessed at <http://www.investigativeproject.org/3864/cair-protests-saudi-radical-exclusion-from-us#>) 

The report also said that during a 2005 sermon flagged by the Middle East Media Research Institute, al-Qarni called the jihad against American forces in Fallujah “a source of pride… downing their planes, destroying equipment, slaughtering them, taking them hostage…” and proclaiming “Allahu Akhbar” from the mosques, and the worshippers and the preacher cursing them in their prayers.

It said al-Qarni belittled Muslims who failed to take action, including “harming the Jews.”

He also invoked Israel’s targeted killings of Hamas leaders Ahmed Yassin and Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, saying he prayed that Allah “will destroy the Jews and their helpers from among the Christians and the Communists, and that He will turn them into the Muslims’ spoils. I praise the Jihad, the sacrifice, and the resistance against the occupiers in Iraq. We curse them all of them every night and pray that Allah will annihilate them, tear them apart, and grant us victory over them…Throats must be slit and skulls must be shattered,” al-Qarni said. “This is the path to victory, to shahada, and to sacrifice."