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http://nyheder.tv2.dk/samfund/2017-0...n-paa-facebook
This was on the news last week. It was recently revealed that in a sermon in Copenhagen back in March, a Lebanese imam was documented preaching that "the Day of Judgment will not come before Muslims kill the Jews" and continued to cite the hadith about stones and trees calling Muslims to kill the Jews hiding behind them. I found it pretty amusing how the press was jumping through hoops to minimize the damage. Reporters spent two hours at the mosque where the sermon was given, the same place the perpetrator of the 2015 Copenhagen shooting prayed at, but failed to find anyone willing to distance themselves from the statement (quoting the clip). "If it's in Islam it must be true; I'm Palestinian, so...; killing is forbidden in Islam, I wasn't there so I don't know what he said" were the most presentable answers they got. Therefore, they went out of their way to interview a decent but totally random Danish Muslim guy who spoke out against the sermon in a Facebook post. At the end of the clip, news anchor Divya Das was wiggling through an interview with a Danish professor of Islamic theology:
Divya Das: I now bid good evening to Thomas Hoffmann, professor of Quranic and Islamic studies at the university of Copenhagen. Thomas Hoffmann, what is it, in your assessment, that makes the Imam's utterances particularly serious?
Thomas Hoffmann: That is, first and foremost, the linking of this very violent old verse or utterance with a modern political context, namely the Israel-Palæstina conflict. Herby the Jews in the holy verse are so to speak linked with regular Jews and Israelis nowadays. I think this is what is problematic about the utterance.
Das: But-
Hoffmann: This reminds me a lot of the utterance that... yes? [He was perhaps referring to a similar sermon given at this mosque prior to the 2015 shooting at the synagogue]
Das: No, what I wanted to ask is do you truly believe that the Imam means that Danish Muslims should kill Danish Jews?"
Hoffmann: ... No, I don't necessarily think that he means that they should actually go out and immediately realize this project, but the imam is very occupied with creating an enemy and fertilizing the ground, and that is precisely what he does in this case. There is no... I don't think he necessarily tries to establish a strict causality between these utterances and a general hatred of Jews.
Das: Thomas Hoffmann, there's a young woman on the website who says something along the lines "I don't think he meant anything bad by it." So should one takes this Imam's utterance with a grain of salt or how do you see it?
Hoffmann: Yes, well, on one hand one should take it with a grain of salt, right? This is an imam who preaches at a mosque associated with Hizb ut-Tahrir. They regularly make very controversial and violent statements, and this is usually something they only have at mouth [as opposed to Matthew 15:18]. But, nonetheless, threats should of course be taken seriously even though they might be empty.
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