The Canadian Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs on Friday expressed "trouble and anger" following reports that an Imam in Montreal had called for the murder of Jews in his sermon at a local mosque.
CIJ news released a video of the 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 statement:
“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.”
