JERUSALEM (JTA) — A video shows Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi saying amen to the prayers by an imam calling on Allah to "destroy the Jews and their supporters.”
Morsi in last weekend’s service is seen praying with great concentration at a mosque in the Matrouh governorate. The service was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
“Oh Allah, absolve us of our sins, strengthen us, and grant us victory over the infidels," prayed Futouh Abd Al-Nabi Mansour, the local head of the religious council. "O Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters. O Allah, disperse them, rend them asunder. O Allah, demonstrate Your might and greatness upon them. Show us Your omnipotence, O Lord."
The Anti-Defamation League expressed concern about the anti-Semitic rhetoric coming out of Egypt.
"The drumbeat of anti-Semitism in the ‘new’ Egypt is growing louder and reverberating further under President Morsi, and we are increasingly concerned about the continuing expressions of hatred for Jews and Israel in Egyptian society and President Morsi’s silence in the face of most of these public expressions of hate," Abraham Foxman, ADL’s national director, said in a statement.
The prayer service came just days after Morsi sent a letter to Israeli President Shimon Peres calling him a “great and good friend,” and requesting that the two countries continue “maintaining and strengthening the cordial relations which so happily exist between our two countries,” according to the Times of Israel, which published a photo of the letter. The letter was presented to Peres by Egypt’s new ambassador to Israel.
A founder of Morsi’s Freedom and Justice Party, Ahmad Hamrawi, over the weekend left the Muslim Brotherhood over the letter, calling it "national and religious treason to millions of Egyptians" and alleging secret ties between Israel and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The ADL wrote to Morsi last week urging him to reject statements made by the supreme authority of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, who called for violence against Jews and Israel.
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