Mufti's Call to Kill Jews "Unsurprising"

On January 9^th, at an event marking the 47th anniversary of the founding of Fatah, Mohammed Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, vehemently called for the killing of Jews.  He declared, “The hour of judgment will not come until you fight the Jews… The Jews will hide behind the stone and behind the tree. The stone and the tree will cry, ‘Oh Muslim, Oh Servant of God, this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’” 

While the Grand Muftis of Jerusalem, since before the establishment of the State of Israel, including Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, Hussam Al-din Jarallah, Sulaiman Ja’abari and Sa’id Sabri have all shared an ideology rooted in vicious anti-Semitism, Mufti Mohammed Hussein has, more or less, taken a back seat, refraining from publically expressing such vile beliefs. 

However, Lt. Col. Jonathan Halevi, senior researcher of the Middle East and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs told Arutz 7, he is “not surprised” by these recent remarks, "The Mufti undoubtedly knew that his statements were going to be heard and yet, chose to make them anyway."

HaLevy noted that with the “success” of the so-called Arab Spring, which has become what has been called by many the "Arab Winter", that the Middle East continues "down a path of destabilization, radicalization and Islamization."

"Israel is no longer able to find an ally in either Egypt or Turkey and finds itself increasingly ostracized in an unstable and unfriendly neighborhood," HaLevy said. "Subsequently, Arab leaders, who seek to restore the dignity and honor to the Muslim religion, no longer feel the need to refrain from outwardly expressing their ideology, rooted in unabashed anti-Semitism." 

Friday marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day. While the Jewish people never lack enemies who call for their destruction and obliteration, HaLevy emphasized the importance of "understanding their tactics and methods so that we can more accurately understand, diagnose and combat the challenges that lie ahead."