Following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun Mufti of Syria, which aired on Syria News TV and was posted on the Internet on October 9, 2011:
Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun: The moment the first missile hits Syria, all the sons and daughters of Lebanon and Syria will set out to become martyrdom-seekers in Europe and on Palestinian soil. I say to all of Europe and to the US: We will prepare martyrdom-seekers who are already among you, if you bomb Syria or Lebanon. From now on, it will be "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and he who dealt the first blow is more unjust," and you are the ones who have done us an injustice.
I say to every Arab and to every human being: Do not think that the people who will commit martyrdom in France, Britain, or the US, will be Arabs and Muslims. They will be a new Jules Jammal or a new Muhammad Al-Durrah. They will all be like the righteous [of the past]. I beg you not to come near our country.
[…]