A-G orders investigation into PA's Jerusalem Mufti

Cleric to be investigated on suspicion of incitement after citing hadith calling on Muslims to kill Jews.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
Jerusalem Mufti Muhammad Hussein 311 (photo credit: REUTERS/Ammar Awad)
Jerusalem Mufti Muhammad Hussein 311
(photo credit: REUTERS/Ammar Awad)
Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein, decided on Tuesday to ask police to open an investigation into anti-Jewish remarks made by Jerusalem Mufti Sheikh Muhammad Hussein.
On Tuesday afternoon, deputy state attorney Shai Nitzan sent a letter to the police requesting an investigation of the mufti on suspicions of racism and incitement to violence.
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The mufti made the remarks during a conference in Ramallah to mark 47 years since the founding of the Fatah movement, when he cited a hadith (written recordings of sayings and deeds attributed to the prophet Muhammad) that calls for the killing of Jews.
Known as Sahih Muslim, the hadith reads: “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say, O Muslims, servants of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”
The same hadith is incorporated into Article 7 of Hamas’s 1988 Covenant.
According to the State Attorney’s Office, other harsh anti- Jewish statements have also been attributed to the mufti.
The attorney-general’s request for a police investigation comes after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on Weinstein to investigate the mufti for incitement.
“These are grave words that the world needs to condemn,” Netanyahu said.
Responding to the allegations of incitement on Israel Radio on Sunday, Hussein denied inciting the murder of Jews, saying he was just quoting the Islamic text. “I can’t change the hadith,” he said.
Hussein has been the mufti of Jerusalem since July 2006, when he was appointed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Three months after his appointment as mufti, Hussein said in an interview that suicide bombing by Palestinians against Israelis was “legitimate, of course, as long as it plays a role in the resistance.”
Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.