RIYADH, May 15 (IsalmOnline.net & News Agencies) - A number of Islamic scholars and institutions Thursday, May 15, voiced condemnation of the blasts that left at least 34 dead in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Attacks on non-Muslim foreigners living in Islamic nations are strongly forbidden by Islam, and those who carry out such attacks are "corrupt" people, the Saudi Council of Senior Religious Scholars said in a statement over Monday’s bomb attacks against western housing buildings that killed scores of people, mostly foreigners.

The statement said the bombings "are acts totally forbidden and are not approved by Islam. They are acts of aggression on Islamic countries because they terrorize innocent people."

The 17-member Council, headed by Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, warned Muslims against extremist ideology, and urged Muslim youth to receive religious teachings only from their respected scholars, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said Wednesday, May 14, the bombings, which killed at least 25 people apart from nine attackers, had been carried out by 15 Saudis.

At least seven Americans were confirmed killed in the latest toll from the Saudi Interior Ministry, and U.S. State Department officials Wednesday put the number at eight.

Likewise, the Islamic Council for Da’wa and Relief, chaired by Egypt’s Grand Imam of Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi, joined pouring condemnation on the Riyadh attacks as “sinful acts that are not approved by any religion or accepted by any sound mind”.

The Council said in its final communiqué after a two-days meeting in Cairo that “world leaders and the U.N. Security Council should issue a resolution as swift as possible to turn over the administration of Iraq to its people and send the invasion forces back home”.

It also appealed to the world community for helping implement international resolutions stressing Palestinians’ right to establish a state with eastern Jerusalem as its capital.

Many Arabs felt skeptical after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, as Washington precipitated a military action against Iraq without similar firm steps to end Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians fighting for an end to long-standing occupation of their land.

In the meanwhile, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood opposition group denounced the Riyadh attacks, but pointed a finger at the United states of triggering off feelings of hatred and aggression against its nationals in the region.

“The blasts do by no means accord with the teachings of Islam, as civilians should be provided a protection under its sharia (law),” the Brotherhood said in a statement on Wednesday.

But the statement, a copy of which was obtained by IslamOnline.net, took on the U.S. foreign policy for “adopting a stance against Arabs and Muslims’ right of independence and freedom”.

“There must be a respect for values of justice and equality as well as the right of Arab and Muslim peoples to be independent without any external threats or intervention into their own affairs,” added the statement.

U.S. President George W. Bush had said in his condemnation of the attacks that they were the work of "killers whose only faith is hate."