Police in the Canadian city of Vancouver are investigating a Muslim leader and teacher who has called Jews "brothers of monkeys and swine" but denies that he is an anti-Semite. City police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police have been working together for some time on the probe of Sheik Younus Kathrada, who teaches at the Dar al-Madinah Islamic Society's information center in Vancouver. Jewish groups have sought immediate action. Frank Dimant, executive vice president of B'nai Brith, said late last week it was the first time such Muslim extremism had been firmly documented in Canada.
The uproar developed over a recorded lecture, part of a series on Islamic creed taught by Kathrada that was posted on the Web site last spring. In discussing the killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of the militant Hamas movement, in an Israeli missile attack in March, he said: "We must remind ourselves of that which Allah has reminded us of so often in the Quran, that we are dealing with a people as we said, the brothers of the monkeys and the swines, a people whose treachery is well known." Kathrada also said enmity between Muslims and Jews is of ancient origin and would be resolved only in a final apocalyptic battle.