(JERUSALEM POST ) — Sheikh Riad Fataar, president of South Africa’s Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), expressed staunch support for Hamas. In a speech he gave last week in Cape Town, Fataar was heard saying “I am Hamas, Cape Town is Hamas. Viva Hamas Viva! …We support Hamas because Hamas follows the Aayah [verse] in the holy Quran…: ‘Fight those who fight you.’” The Sheikh also degraded the Christian teaching of giving the other cheek, adding, “You slap me – I slap you back!”
The MJC is regarded as the most influential Muslim organization in the Western Cape area. For this reason, Fataar’s remarks were met with much disdain from the Jewish community in the country, fearing that they would incite violence against Jews.
Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Warren Goldstein, commented on these remarks, adding: “This disturbing support for a brutal terror organization is not isolated to the MJC. It is part of a concerted effort to radicalize many stakeholders in South Africa, including the mainstream media, academia, and government. This radicalization takes the form of stigmatizing Israel by the false accusations of genocide and the moral equivalence between Hamas, a murderous terror organization, and Israel, a free democracy fighting for its life within the ethics of international law.
