 Egyptian cleric Safwat Higazi demanding death for Israelis |
An Egyptian cleric has made a television appearance to demand death for Israelis who are attacking positions in the Gaza strip from which members of the Hamas terrorist organization are launching rockets into Israel.
“Allah is with us, and there is nobody with them. Allah is our God, and there is nobody with them. We say to them: We are not equal. Our dead go to Paradise, while your dead go to the hellfire,” said Egyptian cleric Safwat Higazi in an appearance on Al-Aqsa Television just days ago.
“We say to them that while our martyrs celebrate in Paradise, your dead find themselves in the Hellfire. We say to you: Dispatch those sons of apes and pigs to the hellfire, on the wings of the Qassam rockets.”
The speech was documented and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI.
The video of the television statement is available on the organization’s website for readers who wish to register there.
“Being killed is nothing new to us. It is what we desire and hope for. It is martyrdom, by Allah. This is Allah’s victory coming to us. It is Paradise with the first drop of blood of the martyr,” Higazi states.
“I refuse to accept condolences or consolation over a martyr. It saddens me immensely when I see on TV a Palestinian woman from Gaza crying and wailing over her martyr. By Allah, I never see such things among the people of Palestine, the people of Gaza. We always see the mothers and wives of the martyrs in Palestine wailing for joy, and preparing another martyr, another man, to raise the banner,” he continues.
He suggests that the threat of death means nothing. “You are threatening us with what our souls yearn for,” he said.
He expresses a desire that he could be on the battlefield, carrying his gun and gear.
“You [in Hamas] are the ones upon whom Jesus, son of Mary, will descend, preaching the religion of the Prophet Muhammad in your land. You are paving the way for the war foretold by the Prophet Muhammad: ‘Judgment Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews. The Jews will hide behind stones and trees, but the stones and trees will say: Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’ You are the ones preparing the ground for this, preparing the ground for the return of the Caliphate in the path of the prophets.”
He says jihad “is our path.”
“The [Jews], who are as smooth as a viper, and who lick their lips as [does] a speckled snake, will never live with us in peace and harmony. They deserve to be killed. They deserve to die,” he states. “They are the ones at whom the Qassam rockets should be fired. You should not care if you hit a man, a woman, or a child. Just like they killed your children – kill their children. Just like they killed your women – kill their women. Just like they destroyed your mosques – destroy their places of worship. Destroy … everything over there.”
WND reported just one day earlier Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar promised his organization would kill Jewish children anywhere.
“They have legitimized the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine,” he said in the television broadcast.
“They have legitimized the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people,” he said in the report, according to the London Times.
Islam expert Robert Spencer, director JihadWatch.org, reacted to Zahar’s threat.
“Behold the brazen hypocrisy: Hamas launches attacks from civilian areas and uses children as human shields, and then uses the deaths of Palestinian children to justify murdering Jewish children anywhere in the world,” he said.
MEMRI monitors Middle East media, translating and reporting on its contents.
Let’s curb the kangaroo court of anonymous sources
Tim Graham