Dr. Salah Sultan (aka Solah Sultan, Sallah Sultan) 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. He relocated to Bahrain in 2007 where he was appointed as adviser to the head of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in that country. Dr Sultan’s online CV, since removed from the Internet, indicates that he is or was a member of several important US. and European Muslim Brotherhood organizations including the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA), and the Islamic American University (IAU) closely associated with the Muslim American Society (MAS).This resume also expressed Dr. Soltan’s vision “To live happily. To die as a martyr.” Dr. Sultan is also known to be a a prominent member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi.
In October 2012, Dr. Sultan was appointed as Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (SCIF) attached to the Egyptian Ministry of Waqf. The appointment was made by the Minister Dr. Talaat Mohamed Afify Salem who has been described as a member of the Salafist movement in Egypt and as an “ally” of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Ministry of Waqf (Islamic Endowment) is reported to have influence over Al-Azhar, the country’s most important Islamic institution. The SCIF describes itself as follows:
The Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs is one of the sectors affiliated to the Egyptian Ministry of Al-Awqaf (Endowments). It was established at 1960 with the aim of presenting the Moderate and Enlightened Islamic Culture to Muslims in Egypt, Arab and Muslim Worlds as well as for all concerned personals of the Islamic Culture.
In 2006, the Simon Wiesenthal Center complained about anti-Semitic and anti-Christian material appearing on the official SCIF website. In 2007, Egyptian media reported that SCIF had issued a fatwa permitting so-called “pleasure marriages” in which the woman gives up some of the rights granted her by Islam, such as the right to housing and financial support from her husband.
Dr. Sultan has a long history of making extremist and antisemitic statements. In perhaps his most egregious statement, during an April 2010 interview on a Hamas TV station he 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.
Other examples of such statements include:
- A 2006 appearance on Saudi TV where he 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.
- A 2008 TV interview during which he cited the notorious Czarist forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and predicted that the US ” will suffer economic stagnation, ruin, destruction, and crime, which will surpass what is happening in Gaza.”
- An August 2011 rally where he said it is permissible for any Egyptian to kill a Zionist met on Egyptian territory.
- An August 2011 Al Jazeera TV appearance in which he Issued a fatwa (religious ruling) on Aljazeera TV calling for the killing of the Israeli ambassador.
- Two sermons on Al-Aqsa TV during summer 2012 in which he said he has met people all over the world who “thirst for the blood of the Jews” and that Jews have entered Egypt in order to commit crimes including deliberately infecting Egyptian girls with AIDS.
- A February 2012 TV interview in which he 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.
- A January 2012 TV interview in which he called for young people to practice sports in order to prepare themselves for Jihad to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque.