Abd Al-Wahhab Al-Mahbashi, a member of the Houthi Political Bureau, said in a Friday, March 20, 2020 sermon that Muslims should unite on the path to Jerusalem and in Jihad against the Jews, that enmity towards the Jews is one of the identifying characteristics of Muslims, and that the Jews and the Americans are responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that the coronavirus, which he described as an "American aggression," was made into such a lethal virus in American laboratories and that it is divine justice that the countries of the world are suffering from a medical crisis similar to what Yemen has suffered as a result of its recent conflicts. He also said that Yemen and the Gaza Strip are two places that have not yet had any documented cases of coronavirus infection. The video was uploaded to a YouTube channel called Rasael. The following day, two COVID-19 infections were reported in the Gaza Strip.
Abd Al-Wahhab Al-Mahbashi: "We should leave behind the disintegration of our religion, and unite in a rank that pits us directly against our enemies, the Jews.
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"The only path is the path to Jerusalem, the path of Jihad against the Jews. This is the path that will sort out all the other movements and guide them in one direction – the direction of enmity towards the Jews. Enmity towards them is the number one criterion for the believing [Muslims]. Tell me who your enemy is and I will tell you who you are. If the Jews are your number one enemy, then you are a believing [Muslim]. If they are not your enemy, then that changes what you are. Allah says: 'You shall find the people strongest in enmity towards the believers to be the Jews.' Anyone who sees the Jews as friends cannot consider himself to be a believer.
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"That virus that has spread all over the world – the Jews are behind it. The Americans are behind it. It is not us saying this. It was said by the people who were the first to be afflicted by this plague: the Chinese. The Chinese did not say this when the catastrophe was ravaging their country. They stood like real men and persevered in the face of this American aggression until they vanquished the plague. Only then did they announce that their opponent is America. Trump, on his part, rejected the accusation, and declared that this virus is Chinese. No, the virus is American. American instructors came to a development workshop in the Chinese city of Wuhan. As soon as these instructors left Wuhan, the virus broke out. The virus came from America. It was developed [there]. [In nature], this virus is not lethal, but it was developed in the American labs to become lethal on such a collective scale.
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"The world has watched our hospitals fill with wounded and sick people, with no medical treatment and no doctors. Today, all their hospitals are full of sick people, and they have no treatment or doctors or anything. Is this not divine justice? Today, the whole world is plagued by the coronavirus, with the exception of Yemen and Gaza. Yemen and the Gaza Strip are under siege, so they have no coronavirus. Allah willing, they will have none."