An Algerian cleric recently sought to explain the claims by some Muslims that Jews are descendants of apes and pigs.
The cleric, Chemseddine el Djazairi, spoke on Ennahar TV on February 8. The clip was translated and uploaded to YouTube by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
According to el Djazairi, contemporary Jews are not descendants of apes and pigs. However, he went on to say, some Jews may have been transformed to these animals in the past - but this line has been severed.
“Contemporary Jews are of the seed of Adam, not of the apes and pigs, because the line of those transformed into apes and pigs was severed,” he explained.
“A Jew who rebelled so much against God that he was thus transformed – how is this the fault of his children or grandchildren? Perhaps their descendents will convert to Islam, and know that there is no god but Allah. This is in keeping with Islamic law as well as with logic. Those who were transformed are extinct. None exist anymore.
“This transformation is true. Some nations were transformed by Allah into apes and pigs. However, they have no descendents. Get it?” concluded el Djazairi.
The anti-Semitic invective connecting Jews with apes and pigs is regularly used by Muslim clerics. Just last week, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) exposed a sermon made by a Palestinian Arab cleric, in which he demonized Jews as "apes and pigs" in classic Muslim anti-Semitic trope, and likewise called them the "slaves of deities."
Likewise, the PA Mufti, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, has said Muslims are in a religious war against the Jews - calling them the "descendants of apes and pigs."
In 2013, MEMRI exposed comments by then-Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, made before he was president, in which he rejected negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and referred to Jews as "apes and pigs".
When confronted about the comments, Morsi claimed they had been “taken out of context.”