Egyptian Preacher Calls for Caliphate With Jerusalem as Capital

Reuters/Amr Dalsh

Egyptian Preacher Calls for Caliphate With Jerusalem as Capital

A radical Muslim preacher told thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters that Jerusalem should be the capital of an Islamic caliphate, in a video clip released Monday.

Safwat Higazi, speaking at a Cairo soccer stadium, said: “We can see how the dream of the Islamic caliphate is being realized, God willing, by Dr. Mohamed Mursi”—the Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate. Brotherhood officials nodded in agreement.

“The capital of the caliphate—the capital of the United States of the Arabs—will be Jerusalem, God willing,” Higazi continued. “Our capital shall not be in Cairo, Mecca or Medina.” He then led the crowd in chanting, “Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.”

While Higazi—who is barred from entering the UK because of statements he has made endorsing terrorist attacks against Israelis—is not affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, he clearly has its support.

The clip was originally aired on Egypt’s Islamist-oriented Al-Nas television station. It shows one unidentified man in the crowd declaring, “Tomorrow, Mursi will liberate Gaza.”

When Mursi took the stage, he told the crowd: “Yes, Jerusalem is our goal. We shall pray in Jerusalem, or die as martyrs on its threshold.”

Raymond Stock, an American translator and academic who spent two decades in Egypt, explained how the clip shouldn’t be a surprise: “This is what the Muslim Brotherhood really stands for: the extermination of Israel—and Jews everywhere—as well as the spread and control of radical Islam over the world,” he told the Jerusalem Post.

The Trumpet has long identified Jerusalem as radical Islam’s ultimate prize. As Egypt morphs into a radical Islamist state, it is indeed no surprise that this is being openly championed.