An Egyptian cleric associated with the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi, has referenced the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious forgery, in a series of virulently anti-semitic remarks made during a recent TV appearance. According to a MEMRI translation:
Following are excerpts from a panel featuring Egyptian cleric Khaled Kholif of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which aired on Al-Hafez TV on May 27, 2013:
Khaled Kholif: America and Israel are pleased with [the Egyptian opposition]movements, which are led by the brainless. They have said so in The Protocols. Let me tell you exactly what they said in The Protocols: ‘We will strive to undermine security in the lands of the Gentiles, through reckless revolutions, led by the brainless.’ It says so in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as translated by Khalifa Al-Tunisi. If you haven’t read it, you should.
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This might lead to our inevitable conflict with the Jews, who stand behind the [Egyptian opposition]. The Jews invented socialism. Karl Marx’s grandfather Mordechai Marx, was a Jew, as was Engles, the German”
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is an antisemitic hoax purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. It was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the 20th century. Henry Ford funded printing of 500,000 copies that were distributed throughout the US in the 1920s.
The International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) was launched on July 11, 2004 in conjunction with a visit by Youssef Qaradawi to London for a meeting of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR). Many prominent individuals tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood and/or Hamas serve as IUMS Trustees including Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood and Jamal Badawi, a leader in the US Muslim Brotherhood. During the very same meeting of the ECFR, headed by Qaradawi, a Wall Street Journal reporter who attended the meetings wrote that a Council member cited The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” in a position paper on how Muslim families are under threat in Europe. “The Protocols, the speaker said, was evidence of a Jewish plot to undermine Muslim moral values through sexual permissiveness.” In a recent TV interview Salah Sultan, a prominent IUMS member, also cited the Protocols.
German scholar Bassam Tibi has written extensively about the use of the Protocols by Islamists as represented by the Muslim Brotherhood. Here Tibi describes the critical role played by what the Islamists see as Jewish competition over a new world order:
The second feature of Islamism is a perception of competition over the world order. Sayyid Qutb’s book “Our Battle Against The Jews” nurtures the Islamist obsession with the Jewish conspiracy against Islam. The Islamized antisemitism that grew from Qutb’s writings is different from the secular judeophobia once embraced by pan-Arab nationalism. It is also different from the traditional Islamic Judeophobia. A part of Islamist anti-Semitism is the adoption of the idea, taken from the fabricated Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that attributes to the Jews the desire rule the world.Today this view is combined with anti-Americanism as Islamists believe the Jews rule the world from New York and Washington. Thus the Islamic world order envisioned by Islamism is seen as directly threatened and threatened by “World Jewry.”
For more on Tibi and his views on Islamism, go here.
Earlier this month, a sermon given at Al-Azhar University in Cairo which echoes some of these themes.
Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, delivered by Muhammad Al-Mukhtar Al-Mahdi, which aired on Channel 1, Egyptian TV, on May 10, 2013:
Muhammad Al-Mukhtar Al-Mahdi: The Islamic nation, which is the guardian of Truth, must be aware of the conspiracies of Falsehood, and of the snares of those who lie in wait. Allah has taught [Muslims] that their worst enemies are those about whom He said: “You shall find the Jews and the polytheists to be the most hostile towards the believers” [Koran 5:82]. Thus, Allah made Jihad for His sake and endurance of pain and hardship effective means to fight the people of Falsehood.
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The confrontation [with the Jews]is inevitable. Our Prophet does not lie. He told us that there would be a confrontation between the Muslims and the Jews before the Day of Judgment, and that the Muslims would vanquish them to the point that the Jews would hide behind the stones and the trees, but the stones and the trees would say: “Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” Prepare for that day, for it will surely arrive, because the divine revelation harbors no lies.
For background on Al-Azhar and its relationship to the Global Muslim Brotherhood, go here.