For Immediate Release
March 21, 2017
Montreal, QC – Yesterday, CIJ News exposed a video of a sermon recorded at the Dar al-Arkam mosque in Montreal on December 23, 2016 in which Jordanian cleric Sheikh Muhammad bin Musa Al Nasr declared – after referring to the “disease of the Jews” – that “at the end of time when the Muslims will triumph over the most evil of mankind [and] the human demons, the stone and the tree will say: O Muslim, O servant of Allah, O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him.” This excerpt mirrors, word-for-word, a similar genocidal declaration in the Charter of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group listed as a banned terrorist entity in Canada.
In response, Rabbi Reuben Poupko, Co-Chair, CIJA Quebec, issued the following:
“We are deeply troubled and angered that yet another imam has dehumanized Jews and glorified violence against them. More worrying yet, is that the Dar al-Arkam mosque, far from repudiating its guest imam, is spreading his incitement to violence and hatred against Jews through its YouTube channel. We are reporting the content of this sermon to local law enforcement to determine if it violates Canada’s Criminal Code.
“We condemn these appalling sermons which promote hatred of Jews and others and are a dangerous rejection of Canada’s core values of tolerance, pluralism, and non-violence. In light of similar incidents recently exposed in Montreal and Toronto, there is a real concern that the airing of hateful rhetoric – including antisemitism – has become routine at some mosques. We urge our friends and neighbours in all communities to stand with us and condemn this alarming trend in the strongest possible terms.”
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) is the advocacy agent of the Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA.
Contact:
David Ouellette
Deputy Director, Public Affairs (Quebec)
Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs
514-294-4420