It’s been four days since Hamas, the Islamist movement which controls Gaza, carried out the largest terror attack in Israel in 50 years, killing over 900 Israeli residents. The Israeli military has since launched a counter assault.

Soon after the surprise attack on 7 October, the military wing of Hamas, Al Qassam Brigades, released a statement saying the attack was “in defense of the Aqsa Mosque”.

The Al Aqsa mosque stands on a site on which both Muslims and Jews lay claim. Jews consider it to be the holiest site in Judaism, claiming it is the place of two ancient temples which were destroyed.

Muslims say it is the site from where Islam’s Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. They consider it the third holiest site in their religious community.

Amid this infighting, a video from last year from Al Aqsa mosque involving the Hindu religious community, has started gaining traction on social media in India. The video shows a prominent Palestinian cleric using the mosque to give a call for genocide of Hindus.

The video was uploaded on 10 June, 2022, on the Al-Aqsa Call YouTube channel, but came into the larger public notice when MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute), which describes itself as a non-profit press-monitoring organisation based in the Unites States, published it.

The speech was made in the wake of massive protests by the Muslim community against former Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma, after her remark on Prophet Muhammad, by a cleric named Sheikh Nidhal Siam.

He said that the only way to teach a lesson to “cow-worshipper Hindus” is by declaring “jihad” to eradicate them. He mentioned India’s neighbour, Pakistan, and said that they have a capable army to teach discipline to Hindus. 

A part of his speech from the rally was shared and translated by MEMRI. It reads:

“Hindus you filthy Hindus.. Muhammad is the master of all people. Oh Muslims, do you see the infidels’ successive affronts and hostilities towards the Messenger of Allah?

“We barely got cleared of France’s affronts, when we had to encounter the affronts by Hindus, those cow-worshippers. These affronts are nothing less than a war against Islam and Muslims. 

“The infidels take turns in waging this war against the Muslims. First it was America with its aggression against Iraq and Afghanistan, then along came Sweden with its kidnapping of Muslim children.

“France attacked once, the Russians multiple times, then there is China with its crimes, and now the Hindu cow-worshippers, who have destroyed mosques, killed Muslims and destroyed their villages. Now they slander the Master of Mankind, peace be upon him. The one and only reaction to such a thing is to declare Jihad for the sake of Allah and to open up battlefronts for fighting, so that the army can have its say, by disciplining the infidels and polytheists and by eradicating them.

“As for you, oh people of Pakistan, you have a greater duty than others in fighting Hindus. They are right there on your border, occupying parts of your land and killing your people. You have a great army this is capable of disciplining Hindus, making them forget the whispers of Satan.”