More Islamic Jew-hatred on Egyptian television, along with a bit of 9/11 conspiracy-mongering. Note that al-‘Ashri only questions whether 9/11 was jihad because he doesn’t think Muslims did it. If he thought Muslims did it, he’d have no problem acknowledging it as jihad. Muslim spokesmen in the U.S. constantly insist that it wasn’t jihad, that jihad is picking flowers and enjoying the moonlight, but they’re doing nothing to disabuse people like al-‘Ashri of their terrible misunderstanding of Islam.
“Egyptian Cleric Hisham Al-‘Ashri: It Is the ‘Dream of My Life’ to Wage War against Israel; There Is No Such Thing as a ‘Christian Religion,'” from MEMRI, January 10:
Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian cleric Hisham Al-“˜Ashri, which aired on Al-Tahrir TV on January 10, 2013. Al-“˜Ashri, who recently returned to Egypt from the U.S., has established a committee for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice.
Interviewer: Does the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11 constitute Jihad?
Hisham Al-“˜Ashri: Well, it depends who did it. Jihad is only for Muslims. They even say “Jihad” in English because they have no equivalent.
[…]
I call on everybody to type in Google “911”, and then click. You will get an incredible amount of videos, documents, and documentaries made by Americans — not Muslims, Arabs, or people of Arab origin — proving that the Islamists had nothing to do with 9/11, unless they were targeted.
The two planes that hit the World Trade Center were military planes, not civilian ones.
Interviewer: So, those who led this…
They were controlled by…
Hisham Al-“˜Ashri: By the US airforce.
[…]
Under Mubarak, Egypt did not have a war for 30 years. Israel, on the other hand, did not last for 30 days without a war. The U.S. did not last for three months without a war.
Interviewer: That’s true.
Hisham Al-“˜Ashri: England and France did not last for three years without a war.
Interviewer: But these were not direct wars…
Hisham Al-“˜Ashri: Yes, they were. America is fighting a direct war…
Interviewer: I was referring to England and France.
Hisham Al-“˜Ashri: They joined America in the Iraq war…
Interviewer: They fought wars outside their borders.
Hisham Al-“˜Ashri: They sent fighters to fight. Our concept of war is that it is great to live in peace, as long as you do not enter a war in which you will be defeated. Got it? When I do not engage in a war for 30 years, but I allow my enemy to have a war every 30 days — this is negligence.
Interviewer: Does that mean you are calling us to wage a war against Israel?
Hisham Al-“˜Ashri: It is the dream of my life to wage war against Israel, under the command of the state, the president, the regime, and the army. I will not decide all by myself to start a war….