Palestinian Minister Mahmoud Habbash: Jihad Must Be Directed Toward Jerusalem, Not Syria

In an address broadcast on Palestinian Authority TV on January 13, 2014, PA Minister of Religious Endowments Mahmoud Habbash said that Jihad should be directed toward Jerusalem, not Syria. "Jerusalem is still waiting. Jerusalem is the direction. Jerusalem is the address," Habbash stressed, adding that "evil hands" were "conducting a filthy game" intended to weaken the Islamic nation and "to divert the compass away from its true direction."

Following are excerpts:

Mahmoud Habbash: We must convey a message to the people who have seized the Yarmouk refugee camp, with slogans, pretexts, and false baseless claims. We say to them: Resistance and Jihad should not be waged in the Yarmouk camp. To anyone who wants to conduct resistance and wage Jihad, I say: The direction of Jihad is well known and clear. Everybody knows what it is.

I cannot believe that anyone could be so ignorant that he does not know where Jihad must be waged. I cannot believe that anyone could be so ignorant that he does not know where to direct his efforts, or where the forces should be mobilized. I cannot believe that anyone could be so ignorant.

Those who send young people to die in Syria and elsewhere under misguided banners must take heed and cease to do so, and must understand that Jerusalem is still waiting. Jerusalem is the direction. Jerusalem is the address.

A compass that does not point toward Jerusalem has nothing to do with the Prophet Muhammad. A compass that does not point toward Jerusalem has nothing to do with the Messenger of Allah.

Therefore, you must stop being so ignorant, and know that you are nothing but tiny pawns in the evil hands that are conducting a filthy game intended to tear the Islamic nation asunder and weaken it, and to divert the compass away from its true direction.

Who has been harmed most by the civil strife that has swept the Arab world? It is Palestine that has been the most harmed.

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