Imam recites verse alluding to Islamic victory over Jews, encouraging kidnapping and murder.
By World Israel News Staff
An imam read a passage from the Quran referring to the kidnapping and murder of Jews after being invited to speak at the Belgian parliament last week.
According to a Jerusalem Post report, Imam Qari Muhammad Ansar Norani was invited to speak at the parliament by Socialist Party MP Hasan Koyuncu.
Norani chose to recite a verse which alludes to Islamic victory over Jews, who are referred to as “People of the Book” throughout the Quran.
“And [Allah] brought down those from the People of the Book who supported the enemy alliance from their own strongholds, and cast horror into their hearts. You believers [Muslims] killed some, and took others captive,” Norani read.
Many understood Norani’s recitation as a reference to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, which saw terrorists storm southern Israeli communities on October 7th in an unprecedented kidnapping and murder spree.
Belgian MP Darya Safai, an Iranian-born dissident who is active in advocating against radical Islam in Europe, wrote on social media platform X that the incident marked an “unbelievable” shift towards embracing radical ideology in Europe.
“With the same chants as here in the Brussels parliament, we woke up every morning in the prison of the ayatollahs, were required to pray in our cell with the same words, and at the same time several Iranians were hanged to set an example to others,” wrote Safai.
“I managed to escape that prison alive, unlike many others, and it shocks me even more to hear the same thing here in Belgium, 24 years later, in the heart of Western democracy.”
She added that “the parliament should normally be the place where the separation of church and state is highly valued.”
Israeli Ambassador to Belgium Idit Rozensweig-Abu tweeted that she was “absolutely horrified” by the incident, and that Norani’s decision to read that particular verse was intentional.
“He could have chosen anything else, not a frightening symbolic message to anyone who knows the Quran, straight from the parliament podium… in Brussels’ parliament, a city with 18,000 Jews who are already experiencing increased antisemitism and fear.”
“Belgium along with France lead the most pro-Hamas and anti-Israel line in all of Europe, and it’s no wonder that with them radical Islam is rampant,” Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli told the Post.
Chikli added that the current Belgian government is “pro-Hamas.”