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.”

Saudi Cleric Issues Fatwa Endorsing “Electronic Jihad” Against Israel

Saudi cleric Sheik Abdulaziz Al Taraifi issued a Fatwa permitting Muslims to exploit information obtained from hacked Israeli credit cards during a late January appearance on Al-Risala, a Saudi-owned television channel with a history of promoting Islamist views.

Noting that Israel “is not a peaceful country,” Al Taraifi exempted Israel from Islam’s ban on dealing with or profiting from stolen materials. In response to a question posted to his Twitter feed inquiring whether the Fatwa could be applied to all non-Muslims, Al Taraifi later confirmed that the exception to Islam’s moral teachings pertains only to Israel.

Al Taraifi’s Fatwa follows calls by several Muslim clerics to initiate “Electronic Jihad” against Israel, prompted in part by a series of electronic attacks against Israeli Web sites. In the wake of the attacks, for which a known Saudi hacking group claimed responsibility, Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri welcomed the tactic as a “new field of resistance against the Occupation,” adding that “we urge Arab youth to develop their methods in electronic warfare in the face of [Israel's] crimes.”

Sheik Al Taraifi’s hostility towards the Jewish State may be more deeply rooted than the political nature of his Fatwa suggests. In an anti-Semitic sermon delivered in Bremen, Germany, in December 2011, Al Taraifi said the Jews strayed because they corrupted the original Torah.