RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—A Saudi official has condemned GOP presidential candidate Tom Tancredo’s comment that the best way to deter a nuclear terrorist attack on America is to threaten retaliatory strikes on Islamic holy sites in Saudi Arabia.
Abdul-Mohsen Al-Sheik, head of Mecca’s municipal council, said he was disappointed that the Republican Party did not issue an apology for remarks by Tancredo, a Colorado congressman.
Tancredo had suggested the U.S. threaten to bomb Mecca and Medina as a deterrent.
“Neither … Tancredo nor anyone else can strike the Kaaba in Mecca,” Al-Sheik said in a statement released late Monday. The Kaaba is a cube-shaped stone structure draped in black cloth that Muslims around the world face during daily prayers. Muslims believe Abraham built it.
“If this candidate had a minimum knowledge of history, then this site would be holy for him before it being holy for Muslims because no adherent to heavenly religions doesn’t know Abraham and (his son) Ismail,” he said.
Tancredo told about 30 people at a town hall meeting in Iowa this month that a nuclear terrorist attack on the U.S. could be imminent and that the U.S. needs to quickly think of a way to stop it.
“If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina. Because that’s the only thing I can think of that might deter somebody from doing what they otherwise might do,” he said.
The U.S. State Department has distanced itself from Tancredo’s comments.
“It is absolutely outrageous and reprehensible for anyone to suggest attacks on holy sites, whether they are Muslim, Christian, Jewish or those of any other religion,” deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.
