Hi Friends,
Any hope Israel could find a peace partner has evaporated over the last week.
First, Iran's top cleric called for the sudden destruction and annihilation of
Israel.
Below, the second shoe dropped today when the world's leading
scholar
has also called for the destruction of Israel. There's nothing new under
the sun my friends.
Agape,
Michael Curtiss
The Muslim Brotherhood's leading global voice, Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, called on Muslims to fight "the greatest battle of liberation" against Israel and the Jews.
In an Arabic message posted on his
website and
translated by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Qaradawi called
on Muslims to rise up and defend Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque – Islam's
third holiest shrine – against Israel. His comments come amid heightened
tension between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel
closed the Temple Mount, where the mosque is located, to all worshippers Oct. 30 following an
assassination attempt against an Israeli activist. Jewish radicals have recently
demanded the right to pray in the Al-Aqsa mosque, built on the holiest
site to Jews, something
Israel has forbidden them to do. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
denounced the closure, calling it a "declaration of war." Israel
reopened the site Oct. 31 amid heavy security. Tensions remain high, and
incitement to violence has increased.
Qaradawi's
article protests against Israel's planned archaeological tunnels under
the Temple Mount and what he calls "attempts to Judaize the city of
Jerusalem." He warns of attacks against Muslim and Christian holy sites.
"What
is happening to Al-Aqsa at this time is a major disaster," Qaradawi
wrote. "The [nation] of the Arabs and the [nation] of the
Muslims may not keep silent about it.
"For the sake of Al-Aqsa mosque, blood will flow, and Muslims will expend lives and money, and sons."
His
diatribe also calls on Muslim clerics to urge followers to defend
Al-Aqsa, and for Muslim leaders and rulers to rally to the cause.
Qaradawi cited an infamous, apocalyptic
hadith frequently invoked by Islamists telling Muslims to kill Jews.
"The
Messenger of Allah (May Allah bless him and grant him peace) has
informed us, when he said: "The Hour will not come until the Muslims
fight the Jews, with Muslims fighting them until the Jew hides behind
rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees saying: 'Oh Muslim, Oh servant
of Allah, this Jew behind me, come kill him.'"
He took a further step on Twitter
on Thursday,
saying:
"All the [Muslim nation] is required to wage Jihad in the Way of God,
as this is a command upon all the [Muslim nation] to their capacity and
competence."
This
position is not new for Qaradawi. In January 1998, the Associated Press
quoted al-Qaradawi as writing, "There should be no dialogue with these
people [Israelis] except with swords." And in April 2001, he described
suicide bombings as follows, "They are not suicide operations…These are
heroic martyrdom operations."