Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Mohammed Badie called on Muslims worldwide to liberate Jerusalem by means of jihad, according to AFP.
In his weekly message to supporters, Badie reportedly asserted that “The jihad for the recovery of Jerusalem is a duty for all Muslims,” stressing that the city's conquest “will not be done through negotiations or at the United Nations.”
The Brotherhood's Supreme Guide has in the past called on Arab forces to confront Israel and for the international community to pressure the “Zionist government to withdraw from the land of Palestine.”
In a written statement issued in May to commemorate the "Nakba," a term meaning catastrophe used by Palestinians and other Arabs to describe Israel’s creation in 1948, Badie demanded that “The international community rectify the historic injustice [of Israel's birth]" and claimed that Muslims had "begun the era of liberation of all peoples, first of all the Palestinian people, [suffering from] the worst occupation known to man – the Zionist occupation.”
Badie also previously vowed that if the Muslim Brotherhood ever rose to power in Egypt, it would work to sever relations with Israel. "We are certainly not happy with the illegitimate marriage between Cairo and Tel Aviv," he said.
"Once we rise to power we will change many things in Egypt's policy, starting with the country's relations with Israel which have caused us great harm."