BERLIN MAYOR REBUKED OVER IMAM’S CALL TO KILL JEWS AND STONE WOMEN

BENJAMIN WEINTHAL

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A MOSQUE in Berlin, Germany.. (photo credit:REUTERS)

A Danish Imam convicted for inciting hate after he preached for the extermination of Jews in Berlin during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in 2014 appeared on Friday in the capital city at a radical mosque,catapulting the city’s mayor Michael Müller’s administration into a new round of criticism for failing to rope in Islamists who advocate lethal antisemitism.

Sheikh Abu Bilal Ismail said in a fiery 2014 sermon at Berlin’s Al-Nur mosque: “Oh, Allah, destroy the Zionist Jews, they are no challenge for you.” He added,’Count them and kill them to the very last one. Don’t spare a single one of them. Make them suffer terribly.

”The Lebanese-born cleric’s sermon was caught on video and triggered international criticism. Ismail was slated to speak on Friday at the African mosque, but was replaced at the eleventh hour by a Syrian imam who warned about spies within the congregation.

The Free Democratic party politician Marcel Luthe, who is a representative in the Berlin parliament, told the B.Z. paper: “The Senate [ Berlin mayor’s Michael Müller’s administration] learned nothing from the appearance of the Islamic terrorist preacher at the Fussilet and Al-Nur mosques and continues to not take seriously the stoking of terrorism under the cover of practicing religion. These types of appearances should be carefully monitored.”

Anis Amri,the Islamic State terrorist who murdered twelve people in a terror attack in Berlin in December, attended the Fussilet mosque. The Israeli citizen Dalia Elyakim was one of the victims of Amri’s Islamic-animated terrorism.

Luthe urged criminal penalties for incitement to hate in connection with such appearances.

Ismail was filmed in 2016 at the Danish Grimhøj mosque in Aarhus stating, “If a married or divorced women engages in fornication, and she is not a virgin, she should be stoned to death.”

The radical Islamist continued, “If someone violates their marriage, either man or woman, they commit adultery and their blood is thus halal and they should be killed by stoning. If the woman is a virgin, the punishment is whipping.”

The Grimhøj mosque announced its support for the Islamic State in 2014.

When asked by a B.Z. reporter on Friday what he (Ismail) meant with stoning and killing Jews, a companion of Ismail said the statements “were taken out of context. if the media were honest ,he would say something.” Isamil then laughed, according to the B.Z.

The B.Z.’s Til Biermann reported that nearly 100 people appeared on Friday expecting to listen to Ismail’s sermon. Women are not allowed into the prayer room where the men prayed.

The Christian Democratic Union city councilman Falko Liecke told the B.Z. that the Müller’s amdinistration must ban the mosque. “This hate and violence contradicts everything that we stand for.”

He said it is not the first time that extremists positions were spread at the African mosque. “It is one of the radical hot spots in Berlin.”

Jerusalem Post queries to the social democratic mayor Michael Müller were not returned.

In 2015, a Berlin criminal court fined Ismail €1,300 for inciting hatred against Jews at the al-Nur mosque, The court found that Ismail, 49 and a father of nine, had delivered a “hostile and hate-filled view toward Jews as a population group in Germany.”

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid blasted mayor Müller in June for permitting the Al Quds march in Berlin. Lapid wrote in a letter to the mayor:“The leader of Hezbollah, whose image was held aloft in your streets, delivered his Al Quds Day speech in Lebanon this week while crowds chanted ‘Death to Israel.’ When people march in the streets of Berlin holding up photographs of the leader of Hezbollah, they celebrate the murder of our families and of our children, they celebrate the attempt to destroy the fragile coexistence between Jews and Arabs in Israel. They celebrate terror.”

Lapid said, “Mr. Mayor, your decision to remain silent in the face of this incitement and hatred is a grave mistake. Allowing the glorification of terrorism in your city won’t appease extremists, it will embolden them.”

According to Berlin’s most recent intelligence agency report from 2015, there are 250 active Hezbollah members in the city. The report documented 70 Hamas members in Berlin.

Germany and the EU classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.

It is unclear why Müller’s administration has not clamped down on Hamas operatives . The EU and the Federal Republic designated Hezbollah’s so-called military wing as a terrorist entity.

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