Top Saudi cleric declares Shiites to be infidels

A top Saudi Sunni cleric on Monday declared Shiites around the world to be heretics and urged Sunni Muslims around the world to expel Shiites from their land. Abdullah bin Jabrain, a key members in Saudi Arabia's clerical establishment, joined a chorus of other senior figures from the kingdom's hard-line Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam who have deemed Shiites as infidels, the latest sign of increasing sectarianism in the Middle East. "Some people say that the rejectionists (Shiites) are Muslims because they believe in God and his prophet (Muhammad), pray and fast. But I say they are heretics," said bin Jabrain in a statement posted on several Islamic Web sites. "They are the most vicious enemy of Muslims, who should be wary oft their plots," wrote bin Jabrain. "They should be boycotted and expelled so that Muslims spared their evil," he wrote.