Montreal police issue arrest warrant for imam who called for Jews to be killed in sermon

Montreal police have issued an arrest warrant for an imam who allegedly made hateful comments against Jews.

SheikhMuhammad bin Musa Al-Nasris wanted on charges ofwilful promotion of hatred, which carries a prison term of up to two years.

Montreal police have refused to comment until the suspect appears in court, butQuebec's Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions confirmeda justice of the peace issued thearrest warrant July 12.

A cleric from Jordan, he was invited to Dar Al-ArqamMosque in the city's Saint-Michel neighbourhood to give a sermon last December. The video was posted to the mosque's YouTube channel three days later.

• Imam calling for Jews to be killed in sermon at Montreal mosque draws police complaint

In it, Muhammad bin Musa Al-Nasr recites the following verse in Arabic: "O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."

CBC independently verified the speech and its translation.

TheDarAl-ArqamMosque has not returnedCBC's calls.

DarAl-Arqamis not a memberof the Muslim Council of Montreal,which represents morethan 40Muslim institutions in the city,according to councilpresidentSalamElmenyawi.

Elmenyawisays he spoke with member imams after first hearing about the sermonso they knew it was unacceptable.

Inciting violence

When HarveyLevine, regional director ofB'naiBrithin Quebec, first learned about the online video in March, he filed a complaint with police.

"It's just unacceptable for anybody to preach that kind of hateagainstJews, especially when it involves expressions of a violent nature."

"There were passages that called the Jews 'the worst of mankind' and expressed his hope, the imam, that Muslims would slaughter them on Judgement Day," he said.

Nasr is a citizen of Jordan, and B'nai Brith is urging the federal government to locate and request extradition from whichever country he is currently based in.

The controversial verse comes from a religious text known as a hadith, which interprets the words and actions of the Prophet Muhammad.

The hadith in question deals with the end times, and tells how stones and trees will ask Muslims to come and kill Jews hiding behind them.