[...] Fawaz Damra, the former Imam of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, was touted as a promoter of interfaith dialogue even after evidence of his participation in fundraising events for the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), was produced, along with a videotape of the Imam telling a crowd of Muslim supporters in 1991 that they should aim "...a rifle at the first and last enemy of the Islamic nation, and that is the sons of monkeys and pigs, the Jews." Convicted in 2004 for lying to immigration officials about his links to the PIJ, Damra, who was born in Nablus in 1961, was subsequently deported back to the West Bank in January 2007.

And just this past October 30, 2007, it was announced that Imam Ahmed Alzaree--the first permanent successor to Damra--resigned as the new "spiritual leader" of the Islamic Center of Cleveland three days prior to officially beginning the job. Alzaree, who at one stage of the vetting process expressed the unusual reservation that "he would not come to Cleveland because a reporter was inquiring about his background," ostensibly accepted the position as noted on October 26, 2007, then pre-emptively resigned a few days later, after the contents of "khutbahs" (sermons) he had delivered on March 7, 2003, were revealed.

Alzaree's March 2003 sermons are, in fact, far worse than has been portrayed by the Cleveland media. One assumes that either they have not been read at all, or at best only perused, and those reading these sermons, by and large, have no idea about the virulently anti-Semitic motifs in the Koran and hadith (i.e., the words, deeds, and even physical gestures of Muhammad as recorded by pious Muslim transmitters). Moreover, these sermons were also virulently Christianophobic, invoking combined anti-Christian/Jew-hating motifs from the Koran (for example, Koran 4:157-159), as well as anti-Christian eschatology (linked explicitly to Jew-hating eschatology) from the hadith, particularly with regard to "Jesus," or to be precise, the Muslim simulacrum of Jesus, "Isa," as characterized in Islam's foundational texts.

Alzaree simply recounts Islamic doctrine (as per the Koran and hadith) regarding "Isa"--the Muslim Jesus--which emphasizes the Jews overall perfidy, especially their gloating (but unknowingly "false") claim to have killed Isa. According to this sacralized Islamic narrative, Isa is merely a Muslim prophet whose ultimate "job description" includes the destruction of Christianity. Thus Alzaree's sermon invokes the canonical hadith that this Muslim Jesus--who was never crucified--the perfidious Jews prodding the Roman's to kill Isa's "body double"--will return as a full-throated Muslim to break the cross, kill the pig, and end the payment of the deliberately humiliating Koranic (9:29) poll-tax demanded of Christians (i.e., the jizya). This hadith states, "He [Isa] will fight the people for the cause of Islam. He will break the cross, kill swine, and abolish jizya"--because Christians will be converted to Islam (and thus exempt from the jizya), or eliminated--"Allah will perish all religions except Islam." Alzaree concluded the second sermon with an apocalyptic canonical hadith--repeated in the 1988 Hamas Charter (in article 7)--stating if a Jew seeks refuge under a tree or a stone, these objects will be able to speak to tell a Muslim: "There is a Jew behind me; come and kill him!"

As a central anti-Jewish motif, the Koran decrees an eternal curse upon the Jews (Koran 2:61/ 3:112) for slaying the prophets and transgressing against the will of Allah. This motif is coupled to Koranic verses 5:60 and 5:78 which describe the Jews transformation into apes and swine (5:60), having been "...cursed by the tongue of David, and Jesus, Mary's son" (5:78). The Koranic curse (verses 2:61/3:112) upon the Jews for (primarily) rejecting, even slaying Allah's prophets, is updated with perfect archetypal logic in the canonical hadith: following the Muslims' initial conquest of the Jewish farming oasis of Khaybar, one of the vanquished Jewesses reportedly served Muhammad poisoned mutton (or goat), which resulted, ultimately, in his protracted, agonizing death. The Jews' ultimate sins and punishments are made clear in the Koran: they are the devil's minions (4:60) cursed by Allah, their faces will be obliterated (4:47), and if they do not accept the true faith of Islam--the Jews who understand their faith become Muslims (3:113)--they will be made into apes (2:65/ 7:166), or apes and swine (5:60), and burn in the Hellfires (4:55, 5:29, 98:6, and 58:14-19).

[...] ... the blatant Jew-hatred expressed by Damra and reiterated (in tandem with anti-Christian motifs) by Alzaree--this erstwhile "Imamate of Cleveland"--was fully sanctioned by--indeed they were merely quoting directly from--the core religious texts of Islam, i.e., the Koran, hadith, and early Muslim biographies of Muhammad.

[...] Sheer ignorance of this history and theology are pathognomonic of much larger and more dangerous phenomena: the often willful, craven failure to examine and understand the living legacy of Islam's foundational anti-Jewish animus, or acknowledge the depth of Jew hatred that pervades contemporary Islam's clerical leadership, including within major Muslim communities of the United States.

Let's not forget that ever since Jimmy Carter got the Israelis and the Egyptians to sign the Camp David Accords U.S. Presidents have been trying to broker a peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. And every one has failed.

Does anyone really believe that the Palestinians are willing to let go of their Jew hatred and make long-lasting and meaningful concessions, and guarantee that they will recognize and abide by an agreement specifying Israel's right to exist? We all know the answer to this question.

Read all of the eye-opening, "Cleveland's Jew-Hatred Hall of Fame."

Related:
Apocalyptic Muslim Jew-hatred:

There are short--term reasons behind the attacks on Israel by Hezbollah and Hamas. But underlying all the geo--strategy is a solid foundation of fanatical Jew--hatred, dating back to the founding of Islam. There is literally nothing Israel or Jews can do to appease those who seek to annihilate them.

Also: The Annapolis Conference: A Malevolent View from the Arab and Muslim World:

On the eve of the United States-hosted international conference in Annapolis, Maryland, editorial cartoons printed in newspapers from across the Arab world and Iran exhibit a malevolent view of Israel and attribute nefarious motivations to its participation in the conference.

These caricatures have a basic theme: that while Israel may be attending the Annapolis meeting, Israel has no intention of making peace. Rather, these caricatures depict Israel as using the conference in Annapolis to manipulate the Arab world and the international community to further its own belligerent agenda. The caricatures appeared in newspapers in countries participating in the Annapolis conference, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Jordan, and in papers from Iran and those controlled by Hamas who are opposed to Arab-Israeli reconciliation.

Many of the caricatures include blatantly anti-Semitic images and motifs of Jewish control of the United States and the world and of conniving Jews hoodwinking the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the Arab world and the international community.