A prominent Muslim cleric said Judgment Day “will not start until Muslims fight the Jews … in Palestine,” during a sermon condemning the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by the Trump administration earlier this month.
Sheikh Raed Saleh Al-Rousan, founder of an Islamic institute in Houston, Texas, claimed in a sermon on Dec. 8, two days after Trump’s declaration, that Jews “killed the prophets and the messengers of Allah,” according to a translation of his comments made by the Middle East Media Research Institute. Some of his comments were made in English while others were espoused in Arabic.
He stated: “My brothers, the Prophet Muhammad brought the good tidings, when he said: ‘Judgment day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews. The Muslims will kill the Jews, and the Jews will hide behind the stones and the trees, [which] will say: Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him… This is the promise of Allah.” He added: “The hour [i.e. Judgment Day) will not start until Muslims fight the Jews there, in Palestine.”
Rousan’s Tajweed Institute in Houston, Texas, did not return multiple Breitbart Jerusalem phone and email requests for comment.
Rousan expressed doubt about the fact that Jews “lived in Palestine for thousands of years” and said that Great Britain “brought Jewish [people] from different countries to live in Palestine. So do not tell me Palestine is the country of Jewish [people].”
His allegations contradict archaeological evidence clearly proving the connection of the Jewish people and the Hebrew language to the territory where the modern State of Israel was established.
“The Jews killed the prophets and the messengers of Allah. They did not accept any religion and they even changed the Torah. They became enemies of each other and they fought each other, brothers and sisters. Go and read the history,” Rousan said, according to the translation by MEMRI.
“Nowadays, they say: You know, we have been living in Palestine for thousands of years. After the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate … Britain entered and did what it did in Palestine, and they brought the Jews, and now they are bringing Jews from all corners of the Earth. They are amassing their multitudes over there. So after, you know, the Ottoman Kingdom, after it ended, Britain, who made that agreement, brought Jewish people from different countries to live in Palestine. So do not tell me that Palestine is the country of the Jewish people. No!” Rousan continued.
In reality, the British allowed a small amount of Jews into mandatory Palestine, even when Jewish refugees were arriving from Europe at the height of World War II and the Holocaust, but imposed no such restrictions on the Arabs.
“So yes, Trump was mistaken,” Rousan continued. He said the Muslims’ prophet Muhammad was right when he said, “Judgment Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews.”
“The hour will not start,” the cleric continued, referring to Judgment Day, “until Muslims fight the Jews there, in Palestine. And they know that fact. The Muslims will have victory.”
“A Jewish soldier once told one of my friends: Do you know when you are going to have victory upon us? Do you when you God will give your victory? He said: No, I don’t know. He said: When you guys will be in the same numbers in the dawn prayers and the Friday prayers. They know, but they are trying to put all the obstacles in front of us, because they do not want us to be religious, they do not want us to know our religion. All these games in the Muslim and Arab countries are from them. They do not want a Muslim leader, look at what happened in Egypt. They do not want a Muslim leader because they will know what will happen,” Rousan said.
According to a report in the Algemeiner, Rousan studied in the Islamic University of Al-Madina in Saudi Arabia and later received a master’s degree in Islamic Studies from the Graduate Theological Foundation in Indiana.
He repeated this message in English for non-Arabic speaking congregants.
Speaking to the Algemeiner this week, Rousan would not say whether his views were reflective of the Tajweed Institute. He said he wanted to consult with his attorney first.
Rousan is a Jordanian national who arrived in the US 10 years ago and established the institute’s first branch in Florida in 2013 in order “to spread the skills of Tajweed [proper recitation of the Qur’an] to all Muslims, young and old.”