On April 1, 2019, the International Union of Muslim Clerics (IUMS) proclaimed Friday, April 5, 2019 as a “Day of Support for Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa and Gaza,” and urged Muslim preachers worldwide to devote their sermon on that day to this topic. The IUMS also posted a sermon it advised the preachers to deliver on that date, which calls for armed jihad against Israel and includes antisemitic motifs. The following are excerpts from it:
“[The act of] marking Isra and Mi’raj [in Islam, the Prophet’s Night Journey from Mecca to Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, marked this year on April 4] contains within it [both] pain and hope. … Oh beloved [Muslims], come to the Isra and Miraj compound [i.e., the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem] … and we shall draw inspiration from a few lessons … [conveyed by] this great event [the Prophet’s Night Journey] and use them to illuminate the way, for this event conveys an infinity of messages.
… The first message [offers] a modicum of hope at a time of despair. It is a message to every Muslim: When troubles surround you in force, and the situation is bleak, [when] friends become fewer and enemies multiply … call in your fajr [dawn] prayers, ‘Oh Allah,’ and trust and be certain of salvation and victory …
The second message is: You have the right to lead humanity, so why do you relinquish it? There is a message in the fact that the Prophet Muhammad leads public prayer for the prophets, and it is that all the prophets handed over the leadership and control of humanity to the Prophet Muhammad, and therefore his followers have the right to bear this banner after him and to be the leaders of humanity. The path passed down to us by the Prophet is to make the path of humanity successful, and to lead it from darkness to light. … It is only when the Muslims relinquish their role and hand the reins of power to those who do not consider humanity important and know only the language of destruction and murder, that humanity is condemned to misery …
The third message is: Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Mecca mosque [i.e. the Kaaba] are one and the same; anyone denigrating one denigrates the other. When Allah said [Koran 17:1], ‘Holy is He Who carried His servant by night from the Holy Mosque (in Makkah) to the farthest Mosque [Al-Aqsa],’[1] he linked the Kaaba and Al-Aqsa mosque, and here two things should be emphasized:
1. Creating the link [between the two mosques] indicates [the following:] A threat to Al-Aqsa mosque is like a threat to the Kaaba and to residents [of Mecca]; the Muslims losing Al-Aqsa, and its fall to the Jews, means a possible threat to the security of the Kaaba and of Hejaz [the region where Islam’s holy cities Mecca and Medina are located], since the Jews have never concealed their aspirations about the Kaaba. Thus, David Ben-Gurion, when reviewing Jewish troops and young people near Al-Aqsa mosque, gave a speech rife with hatred and loathing, which he concluded by saying: ‘We have conquered Jerusalem and [now] we are on our way to Yathrib [the previous name of Medina].’ Thus, too, did Golda Meir, prime minister of the Zionist entity, say in a speech in the Gulf of Eilat after the conquest of Jerusalem: ‘I smell the fragrance of my forefathers in Medina and Hejaz, which is our land, and we will return to it’ … [2] Accordingly, this message is now clear to every Muslim: Anyone who abandons Al-Aqsa mosque will later take lightly the abandonment of the Kaaba; therefore, it is an obligation to go out against those who abandon and relinquish our right to our holy land …
2. Creating the link between Al-Aqsa mosque and the Kaaba makes Muslims feel responsibility for Al-Aqsa and for its importance for them as the place of the Prophet Muhammad’s night journey [from Mecca to Jerusalem], and as the first direction of prayer. Their responsibility toward it is to liberate it from the oppressors [or] to help it by all possible means. … The flame of Al-Aqsa mosque burns today, and the blood, money, words, and efforts of the mujahideen sons of the Islamic ummah illuminate the compound. … [Despite] the great interest in the bleeding wounds in various [other] parts of the body of the wounded [Islamic] ummah, [the Muslims] must not turn their attention away from Al-Aqsa mosque and from the crimes that the Zionist occupation forces are committing against it and its people, the Murabitoun[3] in [the Al-Aqsa] compound.
The fourth message is: Worshipping Allah and waging jihad for His sake are the path to liberating the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque. … When the Prophet Muhammad spoke of the battle to liberate Al-Aqsa from the hands of the Jews, he explained that the battle cry is ‘Worship Allah the Almighty,’ since according to the Muslim’s collection [of the most important Sunni hadiths], the Sahih Muslim, the Prophet Muhammad said: ‘Resurrection Day will come only when the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, and if a Jew hided behind a rock or a tree, the rock or tree will say: Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. … ’ This explains clearly that the path to liberating Al-Aqsa Mosque begins with the actual worship of Allah, submission to Him alone, and obedience to His precepts.”
Read full article at MEMRI.