Saudi Professor Walid Al-Shuzi: Attacking Jews and Christians is Forbidden but Hating Them is a Religious Duty

The following are excerpts from an interview with Saudi professor Walid Al-Shuzi from Al-Riyadh University. Al-Majd TV aired this interview on March 18, 2005

Walid Al-Shuzi: Some people say that when you leave a mosque you must love the Jews and Christians. In their sermons they ask, "What is the purpose of this incitement and hatred?" They say that when you leave a sermon and meet a Jew or Christian you must not display any hostility towards them. Perhaps this stems from the pressures of the so-called anti-Semitism. Honorable Sheik, these people, do not distinguish between hating the infidels and attacking them. We are forbidden to attack them, but we have a duty to hate them, as is written in the Koran and the Sunna.

These people want to cause the Muslims to abandon their religion. This is what hypocrites do, as was said by Allah. There is a difference between hating those who worship gods other than Allah and coexisting with them. Co-existence is one thing and hatred is another. The Prophet's neighbor was a Jew, right? Yet he said: "Expel [them from the Arabian Peninsula]." Co-existence is one thing, and hating such a faith is another.

I don't hate him for who he is. I don't hate him because of his flesh and his blood, and I don't hate him for his nationality. I hate him for the sake of Allah. Even if he were my cousin or my brother, and even if he were my own flesh and blood - I would hate him for the sake of Allah.