Mick Hartley

A couple of MEMRI clips from US Islamic clerics.

Colorado Islamic scholar Karim AbuZaid:

"We started shying away from talking about martyrdom, because now the West at one stage, [asks]: 'Oh, you guys want to get the seventy-two… You guys want to get the 72 women in Paradise?' So Muslims now shy away from talking about martyrdom for the sake of Allah, dying in the cause of Allah. Yes, there is a prize for those who die in the cause of Allah. […]

"If you ask a martyr, while he is in Paradise: 'What is your wish?' He will say: 'I want to go back to this world and be killed in the cause of Allah, and go back and to be killed in the cause of Allah.' That's martyrdom, those people believe that. Imagine, all of the sudden… Look at these guys, they have bombed their homes, they have no homes, and they are fleeing from the bombs… […]

"Imagine, so here you are in this world, looking for a place to hide, and all of the sudden, you find yourself in Paradise. The prophet said that the souls of the martyrs are in bellies of birds, they fly wherever they want to go in Paradise.[…]

"You know, they received an upgrade. You booked economy and the airline tells you: 'We upgraded you to first class.' Don't worry about them.[…]

"These cowards, we know that, we have seen the videos, they go and fight those few… Yes, they are under the ground, they can't stand in their face, they beat them up, they run away, so they go and take their anger out on women and children."

Accusing the Israelis of taking their anger out on women and children? Yes, he really said that.

Indiana imam Sheikh Mongy El Quesny:

"What is happening to Gaza is a victory. People think that victory is [when] you defeat your enemy – no. […]

"Victory is when people stand firm, and adhere firmly to what they believe and they die for that. […]

"We have here in the United States sending special forces and special agents, and they are the ones telling the Israelis what to do, because they know that the Israeli army is the most cowardly army on the planet. With all these weapons and this technology, they run away from young men, who are fighting with sneakers on their feet, AK-47s in their hands, nothing else, but they run like rats. […]

"They have no mercy, they know what happened to their ancestors. They keep bugging us about six million Jewish people burned in the Holocaust. What are you doing to the Palestinians? What are you doing? That is what Allah said: 'Their heart became hardened.'[…]

"Oh Allah, bring annihilation upon Your enemies, their enemies, and our enemies. Oh Allah, count them, kill them one by one, and do not leave a single one of them alive. Oh Allah, bring annihilation upon the plundering and criminal Zionists, the hateful Crusader aggressors, and the treacherous Arab and Muslim rulers. Oh Allah, demonstrate upon them the wonders of Your might. Oh Allah, seize them with a crushing grip."

"Kill them one by one". Not much ambiguity there. 

It's bad here in the UK, no doubt, but in the US it's surely worse. Apart from preachers like these – yes, there are similar here – the situation on US campuses is toxic. Read Derek Spitz – When did pogroms go progressive? – or check out high-ranking academics like George Washington University psychology professor and Hamas enthusiast Lara Sheehi, as outlined by Cary Nelson, or here. 

It's just…when you think of the immense Jewish contribution to American life over the past 100 years – and especially in New York, that powerhouse of US culture….