A Syrian Sunni cleric who was killed last week in a suicide bomb attack on a central Damascus mosque has in the past expressed support for Hizbullah and advocated for bombing American and Israeli targets around the world.
The cleric, Mohamed al-Bouti, was one of 42 people who were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque last Thursday. Bouti was the most senior pro-regime Sunni cleric in Syria.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) posted to YouTube two clips in which Bouti is seen supporting terrorists.
In the first clip, which aired on the Hizbullah terrorist group’s Al-Manar TV in August 2006, during the Second Lebanon War, Bouti said, “The enemy in this war appears to be Israel, but, as everyone knows, the fighting enemy is actually America. Israel is merely the claw of America in this war.”
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He then stated, “I hold that people who cannot stand with the Islamic resistance, but can carry out, in their countries and in other places actions that would in some way paralyze this enemy – they should indeed paralyze the enemies’ interests and destroy their facilities wherever they may be.”
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In a second clip which aired on Al-Azhari TV in 2010, Bouti said, “Many Western European societies – and the American leadership, in particular – characterizes Jihad that was ordained by Allah as terroristic. They link terrorism to crime. They have instilled within the word ‘terrorism’ the meaning of crime, extremism, and deviation from humanity, and so on.”
He added, “We discovered that there is a form of terrorism that is legitimate – a terrorism that is necessary and may even be described as sacred. Indeed.
“We have examined cases of the terrorism practiced by America, which purports to be fighting terrorism. In contrast to the first type of terrorism, which is acknowledged by the legal and educational principles, and which we have termed ‘sacred terrorism,’ the [American] terrorism is undoubtedly filthy and impure,” said Bouti.