| Swedish Imam calls for destruction of Jewry
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Mariam Osman Sherifay, Social Democratic Party MP
Photo: Social Democratic Party
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An investigation by a Swedish radio station has revealed a deep-set hatred for Jews amongst some of the country’s Muslim leaders who have were caught on tape calling for the destruction of Jewry and other “infidels”.
Last Friday, the Swedish Radio program Ekot, The Echo, broadcast an investigation they had made into what is said in mosques and Muslim prayer services in Sweden.
Using a hidden microphone, they taped prayer sessions and conversations with 15 imams in Sweden.
They found that all imams but one, stated that war, violence and terrorism are incompatible with Islam.
However, one imam led a prayer service in which he called for the destruction of the “Jews, Americans and Brits” and “enemies of Islam. The service included the following call:
“God, keep Islam and Muslims high and protect Islam
God, humiliate the infidels
God, humiliate the enemies of Islam
Jews, Americans and Brits
And all those who support them
Who cooperate with them
And who are in alliance with them
God, destroy them all,
God, leave none of them alive,
God, give victory to mujahedin everywhere”
Debate generated
The motivation for this investigation, according to The Echo, was that “Since September 11, 2001, the worries and fear of Islam have grown in Sweden, as in many other countries in the west. There is little knowledge in Swedish society about what is said in Muslim prayer halls and mosques.”
This has caused heated debate in Sweden. Fredrik Malm, leader of the youth section of the Liberal Party stated in a radio debate on Friday that he sees this statement as a sign of the “increasing radicalism of Muslims in Sweden”.
Mariam Osman Sherifay, an MP from the ruling Social Democratic Party and herself a Muslim, told the Swedish newspaper “Svenska Dagbladet” that she wants ”certified imams who have received a Swedish education and clear guidelines that you cannot preach violence and hatred.”
Antisemitic tapes sold at Mosque
On Sunday, the Echo program also reported that they had uncovered tapes featuring anti-Semitic content which are being sold in the bookstore of the Great Mosque in Stockholm.
On one tape, which featured a picture of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas leader that Israel assassinated in March 2004, said: “Oh God, eradicate the Jews, Oh God, eradicate the Jews, Oh God, eradicate the Jews! Oh God, curse them and banish them and let them be whipped by suffering. Oh God, over heaven and earth!”
According to Swedish Radio, the tape also spoke of “Jews as vermin, as brothers of monkeys and pigs, and that there is no solution to the Jews but a jihad – a holy war”.
On Monday, the Chancellor of Justice, a legal authority dealing with freedom of speech, stated that it will now consider the case whether, in selling this and similar tapes, the Great Mosque can be charged with incitement against Jews.
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