A Lebanese Shi’ite cleric who visited Auschwitz last month as part of a delegation of Muslim religious leaders is seeking asylum in France due to death threats against him, The Jerusalem Post reported.
Sheikh Mohamad Ali El Husseini of Lebanon participated in the most senior delegation of Muslim religious leaders to visit Auschwitz on January 23 to mark the 75th year of its liberation. The Muslim delegation was accompanied by a delegation of American Jewish Committee (AJC) officials and also visited the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw as well as the Nozyk shul, where they met with Holocaust survivors.
While he was on the visit, El Husseini received death threats on social media and criminal claims were filed against him for “meeting with Israeli agents,” although no Israeli officials were part of the AJC delegation.
El Husseini, who publicly opposes Hezbollah, said that the criminal claims against him for infringing Lebanese law which forbids contact with Israeli officials were supported by Hezbollah.
#Dr_Mohamad_Ali_El_Husseini meets with
Chief Rabbi of Poland, #Michael_Schudrich.
and calls for the need to activate dialogue between religions
met with #ElHusseini and Schudrich stressed the need to activate the values of tolerance and love among the Abrahamic religions as pic.twitter.com/FSJDR5XGRU— محمد علي الحسيني (@sayidelhusseini) February 10, 2019
El Husseini also publicly supports Muslim-Jewish reconciliation and censures Muslim texts calling for violence.
In light of the death threats against him, El Husseini did not return to Lebanon following his trip to Poland and is applying for asylum in France.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
I’m not sure why he chose France as a asylum from Muslim death threats. France is just another Muslim country.
I think that this article well demonstrates the manner in which Islam forces it adherents to either fit into the mold or be killed. Islam does not permit different ideas other than that of the top people who control all.
Unlike Orthodox Judaism which has a long tradition of debate and discussion over various issues, as started in the Mishna, the Gemora and through the rishonim down to our own achronim, Islam is not a religion that permits any deviation from the way set out by the top Mullah.