Jeddah, May 10: Saudi Arabia's grand mufti has condemned Nigeria's Boko Haram as a group "set up to smear the image of Islam" and condemned its kidnapping of over 200 schoolgirls.
Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Al-Sheikh said the group was "misguided" and should be "shown their wrong path and be made to reject it."
His remarks came as religious leaders in the Muslim world denounced Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.
"This is a group that has been set up to smear the image of Islam and must be offered advice, shown their wrong path and be made to reject it," he told the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat in an interview.
"These groups are not on the right path because Islam is against kidnapping, killing and aggression," he said. "Marrying kidnapped girls is not permitted."
Boko Haram kidnapped some 250 girls on April 14 from a secondary school in Chibok village, near the Cameroon border, while they took exams. Fifty have since escaped.
Shekau's video was released on Monday, sparking a wave of revulsion in Nigeria and abroad and prompting offers of help from countries such as the United States, Britain and France to search for them.
On Thursday,scholars and human rights officials of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation denounced the kidnapping as "a gross misinterpretation of Islam".
This week, Al-Azhar also said that the kidnapping "has nothing to do with the tolerant and noble teachings of Islam."
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