Israel Matzav

When will they start charging imams with inciting against Jews?

Israeli authorities have indicted the imam of a Nazareth mosque for incitement against Pope Benedict XVI and for supporting al-Qaeda and 'global jihad' (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

The indictment said Nazim Mahmoud Salim, who was arrested by police a month ago, led a group of about 2,000 worshippers, and had also preached at the flashpoint al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Islam's third holiest shrine.

Salim is charged with inciting violence against Pope Benedict during his visit last year to Nazareth, the town of Jesus' boyhood in the heartland of Israel's minority Arab population.

In his sermons and on his website over the past decade, the indictment said, Salim preached "an ideological world view identical to that of global jihad" and wrote "publications that supported and identified with the terror organisation al Qaeda."

It said Salim's teachings inspired attacks against Jews and Christians, including the murder of one Jew.

At the time of Pope Benedict's visit to the Holy Land in May 2009, the indictment quotes Salim as saying in a sermon at al Aqsa: "The pope prepares himself at the gate of the Vatican and at the head of a crusade against the Islamic world ... we will expel the pope from Nazareth."

Pamela Geller comments:

This is what must start to happen. There have been close to 20,000 Islamic attacks (that have been documented) just since 911, each one with the imprimatur of a Muslim cleric. And no one will talk about that or address that.

Until now. We must monitor the mosques.

Well, yeah. But would he have been indicted if he hadn't incited against the Pope? Imams incite here against Jews every day (and especially on Friday) and I don't see any of them being indicted until now. Why does incitement against Jews alone apparently not matter?

Labels: incitement, militant Islam, Nazareth, Nazim Mahmoud Salim, Pope Benedict XVI

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:24 AM