MONTREAL (JTA) — A Montreal judge has issued an arrest warrant for an imam who allegedly used his pulpit at a city mosque to call for the slaughter of Jews.
Sheikh Muhammad ibn Musa Al Nasr was charged with willful promotion of hatred, according to the Montreal Police Service’s Hate Crimes Unit.
B’nai Brith Canada had lodged a complaint with police in March against Al Masr in the wake of a sermon he delivered several months earlier in which he cited this passage from the Quran: “O Muslim, O servant of Allah, O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”
B’nai Brith CEO Michael Mostyn responded to the warrant in a statement.
“This incident and others like it demonstrate that anti-Semitism, especially in the guise of religion, remains a serious problem in Canada today,” he said.
Al Nasr’s current location is unknown, but it reportedly may be in his native Jordan. B’nai Brith is seeking his extradition to Canada.
In recent months, there have been at least three incidents reported of imams using their pulpits at Montreal mosques to vilify Jews. The sermons remain available on social media.
Some Muslim groups have condemned the incidents, but Jewish groups say the Muslim community has not done enough to stop them.
The warrant for Al Nasr’s arrest came in the wake of a Montreal police investigation into the American rapper known as Madd Cold, who allegedly has advocated violence against the Jewish community during his frequent visits to the city. The investigation also is the result of a complaint by B’nai Brith.
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