Saudi TV Launches Program Hosted By Anti-Semite



Salah Sultan on Masra Al Habeeb

Al-Risala, a Saudi-owned television channel with a history of promoting Islamist views, began airing a new weekly program last week hosted by anti-Semitic media personality Dr. Salah Sultan. The program, Masra Al Habeeb, was created to “provide practical steps on how to liberate Al-Aqsa,” according to Sultan.

During the first episode, which aired on May 9, Sultan commented about recent visits to Jerusalem by Muslim scholars. “We want to go as liberators and not as visitors under the shadow of occupation.” He further explained that those who want to support or visit Jerusalem should “announce that he is a supporter of fighting, Jihad and resistance... support the case for holy Jihad to liberate the prisoners, Al Aqsa and Palestine.”

The program also featured live call-ins from viewers, including several who used the platform to make anti-Semitic remarks. One caller from Egypt said:

“It will be impossible for the Jews, those sons of apes and pigs, no way... no way... that they can achieve their goal in building their alleged temple. Inshallah and God’s willing this will never happen. We will raise our young children, the seven year old ones, the five year old ones, and the four years old to fight the Jews and have war with the Jews.”

Sultan responded, “God willing.”

Later in the program, Sultan, head of the Jerusalem committee of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), tried to reinterpret the Islamic texts which refer to the historical existence of the Jewish nation in Jerusalem, arguing that this was a short period that didn’t exceed 400 years.

In a promotional video for the program, Sultan is shown reciting a poem that says he shall return to Jerusalem with his rocket launcher. On the program’s Facebook page, Sultan posted a comment indicating that historically when the sons of Israel invade a city they burn it and kill its inhabitants, unlike the Egyptians who would not attack the city’s people.

During a session of the IUMS conference in Cairo on February 1, Sultan described the recent civil unrest and church bombings in Egypt as the “acts of Jews.” He also said, “God exposed [the Jews’] inner wickedness, exposed their secrets and they were made an example of to future nations.” Prior to Sultan’s speech at Al Azhar Islamic University, where the event is taking place, the crowd chanted: “To Jerusalem we are going as martyrs in millions.”

Muslim Brotherhood Electoral Rally Marked By Call To Restore Caliphate in Jerusalem

During a large electoral rally in support of Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohamed Mursi on May 1, Dr. Safawat Hijazi, a prominent Islamist figure in Egypt, predicted that under Musri’s leadership a new Islamic Caliphate will emerge with Jerusalem as its capital.

“We realized our dream of the Caliphate is being fulfilled by Dr. Mursi, his group and his party,” Hijazi told the crowd at the football stadium in El-Mahalla El-Kubra. “With his efforts, the united Arabs states will come true and its capital will be holy Jerusalem.”

These remarks were followed by a chant: “I am Egyptian with pride… tomorrow Mursi will liberate Gaza.” Hijazi responded by inciting the crowd with his own chant: “Come on, lovers of martyrdom…all of you are Hamas…Come on lovers of martyrs, all of you are Hamas.”

Hijazi, a member in the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), also told the crowd, “We will not accept from Dr. Mursi and the group anything less than the application of God’s Sharia’ in the land of Egypt.” He concluded by issuing a fatwa on election participation. “The one who does not go to vote in the elections is a sinner.”

Other prominent members of the Brotherhood attended the rally and gave speeches focusing on Mursi’s Islamic agenda.

Muslim Brotherhood Cleric Revives Anti-Semitic Deicide Charge

Radical Muslim Brotherhood cleric Sheik Yusuf Al Qaradawi issued a fatwa on his official Web site on February 13 in response to a question about whether the Vatican’s exoneration of the Jewish people for the death of Jesus is in agreement with Qur’anic narratives.

While Qaradawi acknowledges in his fatwa, titled “The Jews and the Blood of Christ,” that Jews did not kill Jesus nor crucify him, he says that they still conspired against and intended to kill him. He added that the Jews have a long history of killing God’s messengers and prophets.

“Present-day Jews,” according to Qaradawi, “are crime-partners of their forefathers,” because they “concur with these crimes and praise their forefathers.” He also cites “crimes” committed by Jews today “in the holy land against the elderly, the women and the children” as evidence of them continuing the “crimes of their forefathers.”

This Fatwa is the latest in a series of anti-Semitic statements by Qaradawi, who met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah earlier this month to welcome him as a new member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, his Qatari-based organization.

Hamas Leader Haniyah Joins Emerging Network of Islamists

 Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah became an official member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) on February 5, accelerating Hamas’ ambitions to gain support and publically align itself with emerging Islamist movement in the region. 

IUMS Membership Certificate to
"President of the Palestinian Government"
Ismail Haniyah   

The Qatar-based IUMS, which is chaired by radical cleric Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, describes itself as a “pan-Muslim body,” working on “safeguarding the Muslim identity and bridging the gap between the peoples and their rulers in the Islamic countries.”  

Haniyah membership was announced during a ceremony held at the IUMS headquarters in Doha. At the ceremony, Haniyah received a certificate describing him as the “President of the Palestinian government” and confirming his membership in in the organization. Other Islamist leaders in the Arab world, who adhere to the Islamist ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, joined the IUMS as well. 

Qaradawi’s support for Hamas is well established. In 2009, he reportedly allocated $21 million to Hamas to buy apartments and plots of land in Jerusalem to “build charitable institutions to broaden its base in the city,” according to the Israel Security Agency Shin Bet. Qaradawi, who has demonstrated consistent support of terrorist groups that seek to undermine a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, previously transferred tens of millions of dollars to Hamas directly through the Saudi-based Union of Good, an umbrella organization of over 50 charities worldwide.

During a session of an IUMS conference in Cairo on February 1, Dr. Salah Sultan described the recent civil unrest and church bombings in Egypt as the “acts of Jews.”

Salah Sultan Blames Jews For Egyptian Violence at Cairo Conference

During a session of the International Union of Muslim Scholars conference in Cairo on February 1, Dr. Salah Sultan described the recent civil unrest and church bombings in Egypt as the “acts of Jews.”

He also said, “God exposed [the Jews’] inner wickedness, exposed their secrets and they were made an example of to future nations.” Prior to Sultan’s speech at Al Azhar Islamic University, where the event is taking place, the crowd chanted: “To Jerusalem we are going as martyrs in millions.”

Sultan, who lived in the U.S. for a time and served as president of the Michigan-based Islamic American University (IAU), a subsidiary of the Muslim American Society, also made reference to a January 16 fire at his son’s home on Ohio. “The Zionist gangs burned my house in Hilliard in America with my son inside it.” (Media reports indicate that the fire is being investigated as a possible hate crime, but no information has yet come out regarding any suspects or motives.)

According to Egyptian media, more than 2000 scholars, including senior members in the Muslim Brotherhood, are attending the conference, which is billed as focusing on the role clerics and scholars have in building social peace.

While Sultan does not hold any official position in the Muslim Brotherhood political leadership, he dedicates the majority of his sermons and media appearances to explain the Brotherhood’s ideology and responds to criticism of the Islamist movement.

Sultan is the head of the Jerusalem committee of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which is chaired by radical cleric Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi. The group, which has issued several anti-Zionist fatwas, describes itself as a “pan-Muslim body,” working on “safeguarding the Muslim identity and bridging the gap between the peoples and their rulers in the Islamic countries.”