A Koweiti preacher who has reportedly made anti-Semitic statements and called for Israel’s eradication is scheduled to be one the speakers at a Muslim Fair in Brussels next month.
Tareq Al-Suwaidan is a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait and is considered to be close to Hamas, the Islamist group in the Gaza Strip.
In an April 2012 interview for Al-Quds, a TV station affiliated with Hamas, he claimed that since politicians were controlled by money and the media by the Jews, only "armed resistance" and not Western aid or Western popular sympathy could change the situation in Palestine and Jerusalem.
He also said in the interview that the most dangerous thing facing Muslims is the Jews calling them "the greatest enemy." He later denied charges of anti-Semitism stating "We are not against the Jews, let this be very clear."
In a sermon to Hamas which was later posted on the internet on July 14, 2014 , Al-Suwaidan described Israel as "a deviant country that is destined to be eradicated in its entirety," adding that "We do not demand a ceasefire. Rather, we demand that the rockets continue to be launched until they bow before us."
He further stated that "all the mothers of the Islamic nation – not only Palestinian mothers – should suckle their babies on the hatred of the sons of Zion. We hate them. They are our enemies. We should instill this in the souls of our children, until a new generation arises and wipes them off the face of the earth...Each and every one of us, when leaving this hall, should be contemplating a plan how to wipe out Israel.""
In May 2007, Al-Suwaidan was listed by U.S. federal prosecutors, along with a group of U.S. Muslim Brotherhood members, as an unindicted co-conspirator in the terrorism financing case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development which was convicted along with its leaders of financing Hamas.
An organiser of the Brussels third Muslim Fair, which is scheduled to take place November 7-10, told Belgian daily La Capitale that Al-Suwaidan is ‘’speaks worldwide’’ and ‘’we have never heard about such radical anti-Israeli statements.’’ ‘’He will not come to Brussels to speak about the Palestinian question but about Islam,’’ he said.