Turkish Islamic scholar Adnan Oktar made a scorching response this week to a claim by the top Palestinian Authority religious leader that Muslims are obligated to kill the Jews. Oktar, who hosts a nightly talk show broadcast on the A9TV satellite television channel, raised the issue live on his program January 15 after being approached about the PATV Fatah broadcast by Arutz Sheva.

The Istanbul-based theologian is known for his interfaith efforts, and last year met with several Israeli rabbis, including former Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Rabbi Chaim Druckman and others in efforts to get Turkish-Israeli diplomatic relations back on track. He has also met with Israeli Druze MK Ayoub Kara, Israeli Middle East scholar Professor Mordechai Kedar of Bar Ilan University and others.

On January 9, the Mufti Muhammad Hussein presented the murder of Jews by Muslims as a religious Islamic goal while celebrating the 47th anniversary of the PA's Fatah faction. The Mufti is appointed by PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas. The moderator who introduced the Mufti repeated another common "Islamic belief" -- that the Jews are descendants of apes and pigs," as broadcast on PA TV, and translated by the media watchdog agency Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). "Our war with the descendants of the apes and pigs (ie: the Jews) is a war of religion and faith," the moderator claimed.

"Allah forbid, let's assume such a massacre happened, what would you do?" Oktar asked rhetorically. "You will again brew your shisha (nargila) and lie down, scratching your tummy. Do the Jews tell you not to read the Koran? Do they tell you not to establish the Islamic Union?" he went on, determined to make it clear that there is no source in the Koran that calls for murder of the Jews -- and no justification for it.

"You can go nowhere by bloodshed. All will inflict affliction upon you if you shed blood; you will simply be on a downward spiral of bloodshed," he warned. "Pull yourselves together. I address those who advocate murder. Jews are the descendants of prophets -- Allah pre-destined them as Jews," he emphasized. "They live as Jews. The Koran refers to them as the People of the Book... one cannot simply go and kill them."

The moderator's attempt to malign the ancestry of Jews, he said, was grossly misplaced, an ignorant misquote of the Koran. "Whoever wages a war against Allah and the Koran, that person turns into an ape or a swine," he quoted, adding grimly, "Therefore it is haram (unlawful) to say that stones and trees will point to every Jew and you will kill Jews altogether, whether a girl, woman or a child. This is unbecoming for a Muslim to utter... it is wholly in contradiction with the Koran."

As for the misquoted Hadith referring to "stones and trees," Oktar translated the tradition as "The stones and trees will provide information" and said it referred to "the structuring of the security intelligence" at the "End Times."

Under the influence of mass psychology such people "put forward .... aberrant sentiments, erroneous views, sentiments absorbed in grudge and envy, and the generations growing up with lack of love also embrace them," Oktar said. "Rather than getting involved in such persecution and making effort for the salvation of Palestine, let's struggle for the salvation of the entire Islamic world," he suggested. "Let's demand the Unity of Islam and Hazrat Mahdi (the Islamic Messiah)," Oktar recommended.

"May Allah make Hazrat Mahdi our leader. Jews await King Messiah and we are awaiting Hazrat Mahdi," he noted. "They are the same person."