According to the conference program, Dr. Salah Sultan is scheduled to speak at the annual conference of the French Muslim Brotherhood opening today despite the ban on other Islamic clerics accused by the French government of calling for “hate and violence.” Recent posts have discussed the French ban that prevented Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi and four other Islamic clerics tied to the Brotherhood from entering the country in order to attend the annual conference of the Union des organisations islamiques de France (UOIF).
In a recent TV interview Salah Sultan, a prominent member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) headed by Qaradawi, cited the notorious anti-Semitic forgery the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as well as predicting the end of Israel and the United States. In another recent TV interview Dr. Sultan called for young people to practice sports in order to prepare themselves for Jihad to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Another recent post discussed demands by Sultan for violent actions against Israeli by Egyptians, this time issuing a fatwa (religious ruling) calling for the killing of the Israeli ambassador on Alzajeera TV. A post from August 2011 reported that Sultan had said it is permissible for any Egyptian to kill a Zionist met on Egyptian territory. In April 2010, Dr. Sultan accused Jews of using Christian blood for Matzoh (substitute for bread used during the Jewish holiday of Passover) in an example of what is called “blood libel”, the accusations that Jews use human blood in religious rituals. (Historically these are accusations that the blood of Christian children is especially coveted and date back to the 1st Century . In 2008 he made other virulently anti-Semitic and anti-American comments on Egyptian TV.
Dr. Salah Sultan (aka Solah Sultan, Sallah Sultan) had left the U.S. following negative press reports in the U.S. media about his extremist statements which led the authorities there to suspend his application for American citizenship and, as discussed in a previous post, relocated to Bahrain in 2007. Dr Sultan’s online CV, now removed from the Internet, indicates that he is or was a member of several important U.S. and European Muslim Brotherhood organizations including the European Council for Fatwa and Research, the Fiqh Council of North America, and the Islamic American University, closely associated with the Muslim American Society (MAS).This resume also expressed Dr. Soltan’s vision “To live happily. To die as a martyr.” Another previous post discussed some of Dr. Sultan statements including an appearance on Saudi TV where Dr. Sultan asserted that the US planned the 9/11 attacks as a pretext for terrorizing the world and praising Osama bin Laden confidante Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani. Another post discussed a seminar featuring Dr. Sultan sponsored by the European Assembly for Imams and Spiritual Guides, closely associated with the Federation of Islamic Organizations In Europe (FIOE).
The UOIF is widely regarded as representing the Muslim Brotherhood in France. Fouad Alaoui and Lahj Breze took over the leadership of the UOIF in 1993 and were known as the “Bordelaise Clan”, a reference to the French town in which they met as students. They were generally regarded as more moderate than their predecessors Abdallah Ben Mansour and Ahmed Jaballah who have both served as officers of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), representing the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. Foud Alaoui is also a FIOE officer. In June 2011, a post reported that the UOIF elected Ahmed Jaballah as its new President, replacing Fouad Alaoui who was elected to a four-year term in 2009 but resigned his post. An earlier post reported that Jaballah was identified as a member of the “Meeting of Muslim Scholars and Thinkers”, an organizaton sponsored by the Saudi Muslim World League. A post from last week discussed a UOIF condemnation of the recent shootings in France that echoes standard Global Muslim Brotherhood themes about terrorism.
Discussion
Dr.Sultan has disappeared from the current online program but the older version remains in the Google cache. Another version of the original program is here.