News
EXCLUSIVE: Birmingham cleric calls for Islamic holy war on Israel
The Birmingham cleric said the “only solution” to the Israel conflict was “jihad” by Muslim-majority countries.
May 20, 2021 11:00
The Birmingham cleric said the “only solution” to the Israel conflict was “jihad” by Muslim-majority countries.
May 20, 2021 11:00Radical Birmingham cleric Shaykh Asrar Rashid, who once labelled the Queen a “disgusting woman”, has called on Muslim states to wage holy war and launch air strikes to drive “cowardly” Jews out of Israel.
In a chilling video on Islamic news site 5Pillars, the Birmingham cleric said the “only solution” to the Israel conflict was “jihad” by Muslim-majority countries.
He called for air strikes on Tel Aviv, which, he boasted, would have Israelis with European passports “running back to Europe” as he mocked “the Jews … as a cowardly nation”.
The comments came during an online debate on the conflict in Israel and Gaza. Co-hosts Dilly Hussain, deputy editor at 5Pillars website, and Dr Salman Butt, chief editor of the Islam21C website, listened to the cleric’s controversial views.
At one point Mr Hussain, who regularly appears as a commentator on Middle East affairs on Sky, BBC and Channel 4, appeared to smirk, though he later claimed to have been reacting to a private message sent during the broadcast. 5Pillars’ position was “clarified” at the end, he added.
The discussion, held on 10 May, on “Israel’s brutal aggression” covered the roles and responsibilities of other Muslim majority states.
The cleric, who preaches in mosques in Birmingham, said: “Personally I believe the only solution is jihad, and a call for jihad – an announcement for jihad by Muslim majority states that we have. Even surgical strikes or wallpaper strikes, the type that Saddam Hussein did in the early Nineties, I believe, 39 rockets he fired into Tel Aviv, and every Jew was running into his shelter. Those with a European passport would be running back to Europe.
“You see the way they react to Katyusha missiles or Kasam missiles that do not even kill anyone, they run into their shelters so the Jews are known as… a cowardly nation.”
In comments now removed from the site, the cleric added that while neither Pakistan or Turkey would be expected to carry out a ground invasion, Afghanistan alone could invade as the Taliban had “recently defeated the mighty America”.
“So America has been defeated by tribesmen from Afghanistan,” he said. “Do not think anyone is invincible.”
The cleric labelled the Queen a “disgusting woman” after she knighted Salman Rushdie.
Launched in 2013, 5Pillars describes itself as an “quality Muslim community media platform which is independent and professional”. The site was found in breach of the discrimination code against the LGBT community this month by IMPRESS over comments made by Mr Hussain in 2019.
5Pillars said: “Dilly Hussain smiled at a message sent to him on private chat during the stream, not in response to Shaykh Asrar Rashid’s comments.
“Mr Hussain did challenge Shaykh Asrar Rashid’s choice of words.”
It also insisted 5Pillars editor Roshan Salih “clarified the organisation’s position at the end of the stream”.
The JC contacted the Muslim Council of Britain but it did not respond.
To get more news, click here to sign up for our free daily newsletter.