Child preacher hijacks Jordanian mosques with anti-Semitic tirades

A self-proclaimed child preacher who regularly rants against Israel and the Jews has become a menace in Jordanian mosques in recent months, where authorities seem torn between their indignation at his conduct and their reluctance to oppose his populist message.

Abd Al-Aziz Al-Saifi documents his unbidden sermons, which appear memorized, on his YouTube channel. In these he often rises in the middle of services and begins his tirade of anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric, lambasting Arab nations for their failure to protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque and calling on Muslims to wage jihad against the Zionists.

In one such speech he accuses the Jews of “plundering a land that is not theirs.” He claims Jerusalem “is crying for help” and calls for resistance against Zionists.

In another he calls the Jewish people “the enemies of all humanity” and urges Allah to “annihilate the Jews and those who help them…liberate our land…protect the mujahideen and the resistance fighters.”

In yet another instance he says “the Arab and Islamic peoples like to climb mountains and refuse to live in pits. I’m telling you brothers, Palestine will not be liberated through negotiations but through Jihad and resistance.”

According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, which reported on Al-Saifi’s sermons and translated parts of them, the texts repeat themselves practically to the letter.

Videos of his actions show mosque-goers listening to the child, some patiently, some less so. Often officials attempt to silence him and urge him to quiet down, sometimes forcefully. But he appears to ignore them entirely and is at times supported by other worshipers who back his message.