During his visit to the Middle East, Pope Francis is scheduled to meet with an Islamic religious leader who has endorsed a Jewish genocide.
The pope begins his three-day trip to the Holy Land Saturday and on Monday his schedule has him meeting at the Al Aqsa complex with Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. During a 2012 rally broadcast on Palestinian television, the grand mufti passionately quoted a hadith, an account of a deed or saying of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad, foreshadowing the murder of Jews.
“The hour of [resurrection] will not come until you fight the Jews,” the mufti said, reciting the hadith, according to a video distributed by Palestinian Media Watch. “The Jew will hide behind stones or trees. The stones or trees will call: ‘Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'”
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The same hadith is quoted in the founding charter of Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that controls the Gaza Strip.
Not surprising for a religious leader who advocates Jewish genocide, the Mufti has also legitimized suicide bombings against Jews in Israel.
Hussein is not the first Grand Mufti of Jerusalem to advocate for a Jewish genocide. Grand Mufti Mohammad Amin al-Husayni spent much of World War II in Germany as guest of the Nazi regime. There, he supported the Holocaust of the Jews and advocated for its expansion to the Middle East. (READ: Yes, Virginia, the Palestinian Arabs do have a deep connection to the Holocaust)
In his email tip sheet, Middle East analyst Tom Gross noted that the pope’s meeting with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem has caused some concern in Israel, even if it is a matter of protocol.
“There is concern in Israel that in the course of his forthcoming visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Pope Francis, as a matter of protocol, is scheduled to meet with the most senior religious figure in the [Palestinian Authority], the Mufti Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, who has an ongoing record of stirring up anti-Semitic hatred and saying it was a religious duty for Muslims to kill Jews,” Gross wrote.