German prosecutors have announced that they will press charges against Abu Bilal Ismail over his public speech at Berlin’s Al Nusra mosque on July 18 last year, where he called for the death of Jews.
“Oh Allah, destroy the Zionist Jews. They are no challenge for you. Count them and kill them to the very last one. Don’t spare a single one of them. Oh Lord, bring torment upon them,” Ismail said.
It’s understood he will be charged with incitement of hatred offences, which can be imposed on anyone found guilty of encouraging hatred towards others on the basis of their nationality, race, religion or ethnicity.
In Germany, inciting hatred charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
A video of the prayer, which was initially meant to be an offering of support to those suffering in Gaza, went viral on social media, eventually leading to complaints from the public and subsequent police investigations.
German MP @jensspahn "and on German streets we hear talk like ‘Jews in the gas’ and they come not only from neo-Nazis"http://t.co/XJ5IZMSxVf
— Benjamin Weinthal (@BenWeinthal) February 22, 2015
Following public uproar, Ismail attempted to clarify his remarks, saying that he didn’t call for all Jews to die.
"I prayed for God to destroy those Jews who kill us. It’s not all Jews, because I know Jews who are good toward us," he was quoted as saying in local media.
The furore placed increased attention on the controversial Grimhøj mosque in the Danish city of Aarhus, where Ismail is a regular imam.
Some of the mosque’s officials created widespread anger earlier this month, following the airing of a documentary by Danish broadcaster DR, where senior officials said they supported ISIL and wanted an Islamic caliphate to be established.
The mosque’s members drew the ire of large parts of the pubic by saying that they didn’t believe in democracy, and claiming that a Danish man suspected of carrying out a suicide attack in Iraq was a hero.
However, since the implementation of a new counter radicalisation program by the city’s police and community groups in 2014, only one person has left the city to fight in Syria.
