The imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest shrine, condemned a shooting rampage that claimed the lives of five Westerners in Saudi Arabia in the same strong terms as he denounced attacks which killed Muslims.
"The hearts shake ... from these criminal acts in Riyadh, what followed in Yanbu, and the painful events which preceded, because they claimed sacred lives," Sheikh Osama Abdullah al-Khayat told worshippers at weekly prayers.
Five Western engineers were killed by four gunmen who burst into a petrochemical plant in the industrial city of Yanbu last Saturday, just 10 days after a suicide bombing against a security forces in Riyadh killed six people, including four security men and a young girl, and wounded 145 others.
A wave of suicide bombings in the Saudi capital killed 52 people in May and November 2003.
The prayer leader at the Grand Mosque accused the perpetrators of these attacks, suspected of being sympathizers of the Al-Qaeda terror network, of being tools in the hands of the Muslims' enemies.
"In truth, who benefits from these actions? The Muslims or the enemies?" asked Khayat, whose sermon was broadcast live on state television.
"How can a reasonable person accept to become a tool in the hands of his enemies and the enemies of his country and (Islamic) nation?" he said.
Khayat urged worshippers to denounce violence and stand "as one against this grave danger."
In an implicit call against political dissent, he added: "Lessen arguments, and step up action ... Beware of giving whims or personal interests precedence over the interests of religion, the country and the nation."