Friday sermons from around the Islamic world used to be circulated fairly regularly by MEMRI and others; you can search the archives here and find some hair-raising examples. But in recent months few have come to light; apparently someone in the PR department realized just how damaging the publication of these sermons in the West was to the jihad cause.
Now, however, Der Spiegel (thanks to JS) has published a full-length piece, “What Muslims Hear at Friday Prayers.” The Spiegel editors seem uncomfortable with what they have found, and engage in some despicable (and entirely unsupported by any evidence) moral equivalence, saying this a few sentences after they quoted the Abu Hamza statement that I posted as the headline here: “But surely such examples of narrow-mindedness can be found in any major religion or creed.”
Oh really? Then produce such examples, please. Let us see a Spiegel report on Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu preachers calling for the murders of women who they deem to be not dressed properly. Let us hear about the Christian preachers who say, “This is a sign, you faithful, that your battle with the Jews is still a long way from coming to an end.” Tell us about the Jewish and Christian congregations that chant “Death to Iran!” or death to anyone.
Nonetheless, despite this absurdity, the Spiegel report is illuminating:
Radical preachers have actively contributed to this impression. In a Berlin mosque, a television crew secretly recorded the sermon of a Turkish imam who described the Germans as godless and railed against what their alleged stench. In London, hate preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri called upon the faithful to murder female tourists in his native Egypt, saying: “If a woman, even a Muslim woman, is naked and you have no way of covering her up, it is legitimate to kill her.”
Other agents of the Koran speak moderately when addressing Western audiences, but their words turn decidedly more radical when directed towards Muslims. In an interview with SPIEGEL, television imam Yusuf al-Qaradawi, perhaps currently one of the most influential Islamic scholars around, magnanimously conceded that there is also room in heaven for devout Christians and Jews. But on his Arab-language website a short time later, he made it clear that he believes that Christians and Jews are ultimately nothing more than infidels….
Whereas imams in places like Istanbul and Jakarta tended to devote their sermons to theological exegesis, Friday prayers in Pakistan, Iran and the Gaza Strip were markedly more political. In these places, religious scholars whipped their listeners into a holy frenzy and drew a sharp line between the Dar al-Islam, or House of Islam, and the Dar al-Harb, or House of War — the two spheres into which schools of Islamic legal thought have divided the world….
In Peshawar, Pakistan, Maulana Khalil Ahmad compared the world’s monotheistic religions and — perhaps not surprisingly — praised Islam as being the most complete of them all: “Contradictions prevail, especially in Christianity and Judaism, as well as in Communism.” But that was mild compared with the sermon his fellow local imam Abd al-Akbar Chitrali gave in the same spot a week earlier, when he derided Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s claim to have given Pakistan true democracy. Musharraf, the imam complained, is trying to introduce the “Western secularism” of his idol, Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The founder of the modern Turkey, said Chitrali, was a man who “turned mosques into churches and had religious scholars murdered. Listen to me, Muslims! Kemal Atatürk is not our ideal. Musharraf is not just attempting to placate the West and the USA, but also to remain permanently in power.”…
NUR MOSQUE, GAZA STRIP
In this mosque in the Jabaliya refugee camp with ties to the extremist Hamas movement, Friday prayers ended with an appeal to Palestinians to rise up against Israeli occupiers. The sermon was given by 38- year- old Imam Talal al- Majdalawi.When the Jews withdrew from the Gaza Strip, we thought that we had gained all the freedom in the world. But then came the bombardment. This is a sign, you faithful, that your battle with the Jews is still a long way from coming to an end. It proves that the conflict is not taking place among us and between us, but with the infidel Jews. This is why you should say, whenever there is a rocket attack: God be praised, there is no God other than the one God, and He is our protector. We say to the Jews: “What you are doing to us today is written in the book of God.” There it is said: “Your will suffer fear and hunger.” But we too will sow fear and terror, as they have never seen before, in the hearts of those who bring us fear and hunger today. With the help of God, we should be afraid of nothing. We must not be afraid whenever a bullet strikes its target or whenever we are threatened “¦ This does not frighten us. This should make us strong in our fight against the Jews.”…
Hojjatolislam Ahmed Khatami, speaking to thousands of Iranian Muslims in the courtyard of the University of Tehran, is dealing with a similar problem. He begins the political portion of his sermon with a mention of the devastating earthquake in Iran’s Lorestan province, praising the “diligent Islamic regime for overcoming these difficulties.” But the congregation also wants to hear something else. When Khatami took to the podium, the faithful chanted: “Death to America! Death to England and its treachery! Nuclear energy is our natural right!” And Khatami doesn’t disappoint them. He mentions the controversy over Danish cartoon’s of Muhammad and calls upon Sunnis and Shiites to unite in the face of “this insult to the Prophet.” Quoting the Koran, he defends the right of resistance. “Our resistance is what triggers respect for our 27-year-old revolution. They have prepared many crises for our great nation, but we have left them behind with our heads held high.” Then he turns his attention to Iran’s nuclear conflict with the West….
Read it all. There is much more bellicosity from the holy preachers of Iran.