Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) revealed that in a sermon at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount two weeks ago, Sheikh Khaled Al-Mughrabi held forth with a rancidly anti-Semitic lecture accusing Jews of blood libels, paganism and devil worship.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center responded to the report by condemning the sermon and urging denunciation from King Abdullah of Jordan - whose Jordanian Waqf manages the site, and Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas - whose organization gave approval to the sermons.
Al-Mughrabi responded last Friday by upping the ante with even more anti-Semitic creed and an outlandish claim that his demonization was meant as "advice" for the Jews.
Teacher of blood libel: It was "advice" to the...by palmediawatch
Defending his anti-Semitic lesson, Al-Mughrabi said last Friday that his words were "advice" to "the Children of Israel" who he was trying to "save" from "Hell," apparently saying that by accusing Jews of murdering children and using their blood to bake matzah the Jews would stop doing so.
"When we talk about the Children of Israel, we talk about them because we are trying to save them from the punishment they inflict on themselves in the fire of Hell. We give advice in order to save the person we are advising, whoever he may be, whether Jew or Christian or Buddhist, or of any religion. What is our goal? To save him from the fire of Hell. To get him into the Garden of Eden," claimed the sheikh.
He added, "if you give advice to a Jew, he immediately says: 'You're inciting to racism, you're an anti-Semite.'"
Not only did Al-Mughrabi try to justify his support of the blood libel that was used to spur massive pogroms and violence against Jews in Europe during the Middle Ages - he also added to his repertoire of anti-Semitic vitriol.
"The Children of Israel symbolize the Devil," stated the sheikh, adding that they "hate all the nations" and are responsible for problems worldwide.
Pointing the attention of his followers to the cameras, he said, "I remind you, our class is being recorded. We do not talk about the Children of Israel because we hate the Children of Israel. Rather the opposite. It is the Children of Israel who hate all the nations, but we (Muslims) don't hate anyone, praise Allah. It is not in our hearts, we, the nation of Mohammed - He (Allah) did not put hatred of other nations in our hearts."
"But at the same time, when you return to the essence of the verses of the Koran, and when you draw closer to Allah, you pity these people, you feel sorry for them," he said, hitting his theme of hostility to the Jewish people yet again.
PMW revealed that according to the PA, religious lessons in all mosques are supervised by the PA and require prior approval.
In 2010, then-PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash was quoted by Al-Hayat Al-Jadida as he explained that "the mosques and everything related to them belong to the Ministry of Religious Affairs...the religious lessons, Koran study and other activities going on in the mosques require prior approval by the Ministry."