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Egyptian Sheikh and cleric calls Jews a “cancer”, “germ”, and a “people of falsehood, heresy and decline”

The Middle East Media Research Institute has released footage of an Egyptian cleric, Sheikh Ali Qassem, spouting antisemitic propaganda in a lecture, which is currently on YouTube, called “Path to Allah”, and which was released in December.

In the tirade, he begins by dismissing the concept of “openness towards others” as a “loathsome term”, and seeks to “enlighten” his viewers about the “Jewish Other”.

He then says the Jews “cursed Allah”, that they “slayed innocent people” and “even slayed the prophets”. These two claims mirror long-standing antisemitic canards which were common in Christian Europe. The first resembles a blood libel, examples of which can be found frequently in the Islamic world, but the latter seems to closely correspond to the accusation that Jews “killed Jesus”, who is also considered a prophet in Islam. The claim of “deicide”, as it was to Christians, was frequently used to incite violence against Jews in Christian territories, and a parallel claim seems to be taking root with Islamic extremists.

The cleric then calls Jews “the brethren of apes and pigs”, which is a term increasingly used to smear Jews in the Muslim world, and which has a long history of being applied to Jews by Muslims.

He then uses the term a “people of falsehood, heresy and decline” who will be enemies of the Muslims “until Judgement Day”.

He accuses Jews of having a “covert hatred” towards Muslims which has “not ceased for a single moment”.

He ends the video by celebrating the recent fires in Israel.

Unfortunately, it is very unlikely for antisemitism to start to come to an end in Muslim countries when religious figures are able to pass such unadulterated hatred of Jews off as religious discourse. There is potential for religion to bridge the gap between Jews and Muslims, with both being monotheistic religions, and with various Jewish and Muslim thinkers having written positively about the other, not least of which being Maimonides and his son. However, sadly there are still many cases like this when religion is used to entrench antisemitism in Muslim communities.

 

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Holocaust denial and antisemitism in Palestinian and Egyptian news sites

El Badil,  an Egyptian news site published a series of anti-semitic and Holocaust denial articles that were  republished by Palestenian TV Network Wattan News, reports the online American Jewish newspaper The Algemeiner on 22nd August, 2016.  The Algemeiner claims that the articles appeared in four parts: part one denies Jews exist as a people stating that Ashkanazi Jews are Khazars; part two states Jews use the ‘myth of the chosen people to manipulate the world to do their bidding’; part three denies Israel as the promised land and claims Jews have no historical ties to the region, essentially depriving Jews of part of their history; part four cites ‘renowned’ Holocaust deniers including Fred Leuchter, David Irving, and Ernst Zundel as ‘experts’, using their work as ‘evidence’ to deny the Holocaust , the use the of gas chambers and that claim there were only three million Jews in Europe before World War Two, thereby denying the count that six million Jews died during the conflict.

The articles were all titled “Zionist lies”

” Denial that Jewish people exist and that Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis are framed as if they are merely anti-Zionist positions”, the report claims. Adding further that Arab media are complaining about Arab refugees being shown death camps as history lessons and reprimanded if observed comparing Israeli activities to Nazi actions.

The use of the ‘Kharazian hypothesis’ is both scientifically flawed, as there is no evidence for it in genetic studies, and is a common thread within antisemitic discourse. Similarly, the

Links to the features can be found through the Algemeiner article, here.

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Egyptian media: Saudis are “Talmudic secret agents”

The blog Elder of Ziyon has reported that El-Shamal News, a prominent Egyptian media outlet, has published a bizarre antisemitic conspiracy theory that describes the Saudi royal family as “Talmudic secret agents”.

El-Shamal write:

“Global Talmudic Zionism has succeeded in planting a Talmudic Zionist gang who are staunch enemies of Islam and Muslims in the very land of Muhammad, since the 284-year-old when Zionism succeeded and convinced Britain to install the Mordechai family whose lineage started with the Jews of Khaybar to take the name of the Al-Saud and (Britain) enabled them and international Zionism to British colonial occupation of the Hijaz led by the name of Muhammad ibn Saud and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab who have committed the most heinous crimes against the people of Hijaz and the people of Iraq…
The Talmudic family killed more than 10 million Muslims because of the Talmudic motto that everyone who kills a lot of non-Jews will enter Paradise, and 10 million dead Muslims would ensure the highest levels of Paradise.”

The article accuses “Talmudic Jews” of using stolen money “to finance all Western colonial wars of Zionism” and claims that they kill those “hostile to Jews and their associates”. This is claimed despite the fact that it is against Saudi law to carry out any Jewish services. Jews are rarely allowed to even enter the country and people wishing to enter the country must sign a statement confirming they are not Jewish.

The article goes on to claim that the Shah of Iran and Saddam Hussein were also “Talmudic” Jews, whilst praising Hezbollah and the current Iranian regime. EoZ takes this to suggest that the writer is likely affiliated with the Iranian regime in some way.

Whilst attempting to place blame on Jews for events or political figures that one dislikes is blatantly antisemitic, both in appealing to the idea of a Jewish conspiracy and in using Jews as a scapegoat, the ADL has also produced a report exploring how references to the Talmud have frequently been used in antisemitic material.

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Lionel Messi accused of being Jewish in Egyptian TV farce

Lionel Messi, a professional footballer from Argentina who plays forward for Football Club Barcelona and the national Argentine team, was recently accused by member of the Egyptian parliament, Said Hasasin, of “humiliating…all Egyptians.”

During an on-air interview with talk show host, Mona El-Sharkawy of Yes I am Famous, broadcast on the MBC Masr channel, Messi offered his football boots to be auctioned for charity.

A shoe may be construed as disrespectful in Arab culture, especially when thrown or shown the sole. Upon witnessing Messi’s donation, MP Hasasin responded on his own talk show, “Whose shoes do you want to sell, Messi? How much do you think it will get? You don’t know that the nail of a baby Egyptian is worth more than your shoes? Keep your shoes to yourself or sell them to Israel.”

Egyptian Football Association spokesman, Azmi Mogahed, phoned into Hasasin’s show to add, “I know he’s Jewish, he donates to Israel and visited the Wailing Wall…we don’t need his shoes and Egypt’s poor don’t need help from someone with Jewish or Zionist citizenship.”

Ahmed Abdelhamid, better known as Mido, former footballer and current Egyptian football manager of Zamalek, tweeted, “The most precious thing the writer owns is his pen… and the most precious thing the footballer owns is his shoes. I hope we can stop the false accusations.”

Messi is the only football player to have won the European Golden Shoe three times, amongst many other titles. This honour is awarded each season to the leading scorer in matches from the top division of every European national league.

Messi visited the Western Wall with his team, FC Barcelona, as a stop on their peace tour in Israel in 2013. The following year, Messi participated in an all-star match organised by Pope Francis in Rome’s Olympic Stadium to support coexistence amongst people of different religions and support children’s charities. Mohamed Aboutrika, former Egyptian footballer, rejected the Pope’s invitation, citing “Zionist” participation in reference to Israeli midfielder Yossi Benayoun, alongside whom Aboutrika refused to play.

Messi’s philanthropic endeavours include his position as Ambassador for United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) since 2010, when he traveled to Haiti to raise awareness of the effects of the earthquake’s impact on children there. As an active participant in UNICEF’s campaigns, he works to increase child HIV prevention, improve education access, promote disabilities inclusion, and mitigate mortality of disadvantaged youth. The football star founded his own organisation, as well. The Leo Messi Foundation supports access to health care, education and sport, such as youth football in Argentina, amongst other projects.

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Egyptian sex therapist declares that Jews “have had the highest rate of sexual perversions in history”

On 16th January, Egyptian Al-Hayat TV broadcast an interview with, Heba Kotb, a consultant on Islamic medicine and marital life. Kobt claimed that “strict rules” in Juadaism create a “psychological imbalance” and that Jews “have had the highest rate of sexual perversions in history.”

Source: MEMRI

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Egyptian TV guest and host agree that burning Jews is the “only solution”

Speaking on Egyptian al-Rahma television, host Muhammad Khaled summarises his conversation with his guest, Islamic history professor Yuri Ahmad Zidan, saying: “The history of the Jews has been black since the dawn of time. Nebuchadnezzar burned them, the Crusaders burned them, and even Hitler and Nazism burned them. Is burning the only solution for the Jews?” His guest replies: “So it seems. So it seems.”

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Egyptian newspaper claims Jews capture, torture and murder non-Jewish children, then make pies with their blood

Egyptian newspaper Vetogate has published an article claiming that Jews practice strange and inhuman rituals, such as torturing and murdering non-Jewish children and using their blood to make pies:

“On the occasion of Purim, Jewish adult men slaughter a non-Jewish child under the age of seven, after torturing him and then completely emptying their blood in a suitable container, and then the blood is dried until it becomes a powder to bake a blood pie, which is a sacrifice for this holiday; in order to atone for sins. Despite the fact that the custom has been discontinued for the time being, but the Jews practiced it all over the world, and particularly in Russia during World War II, prompting ostracism and persecution in the communities in which they lived.”

The antisemitic “blood libel” has been used as a pretext to persecute Jews for centuries.

Translation: Elder of Ziyon