Preacher at mosque near where Labour candidate was abused called for ‘destruction’ days after Oct 7

From the Telegraph

A preacher at a mosque in Slough called on Allah to “destroy” those responsible for “oppression” in Gaza, a week after the Oct 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, it has emerged.

A video posted on YouTube by the Al-Jannah mosque shows that on Oct 14, the mosque in the Berkshire town held a Q&A session on “Palestine from 1948 to 2023”, followed by a prayer for Gaza.

Leading the prayer, an unnamed man says: “With the word and the decree of yours, you will annihilate them.

“We ask you Allah, destroy them, destroy them. Destroy them for the oppression they are carrying out against our brothers and our sisters and our children and our mothers.”

Last week, a Labour candidate was forced to abandon leafleting outside the Al-Jannah mosque after being verbally abused by several men.  “You’ve got the blood of Palestinian children on your hands, you Zionist devil, get out,” 

The YouTube video shows another speaker leading the Q&A and making several controversial comments about the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

“Zionism is a political perversion of Judaism,” the man tells the group. “True Torah Jews … they stick to the text, they don’t make it up as they go along,” he says. “From our perspective we believe that all of Palestine should be ruled by Muslims and that the people are entitled to live there as long as they’re not criminals or whatever because Islam has never had a problem with Jews.”

Elsewhere, the speaker suggests that Israel is worse than Genghis Khan, who is estimated to have killed tens of millions of people. “If you take Islam or revelation away from your worldly affairs, you are left with barbarity. Genghis Khan,” he says. “Zionism is now the epitome that has surpassed the Tartars or the Mongols. Humanity has never known something like this, that’s what we’re dealing with.”

He also criticises the 1993 Oslo peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation as “betrayal and treachery”.

The Al-Jannah mosque was contacted for comment.