A British Columbia imam known for preaching hardline Islamist views told Muslim youth in Victoria that Jews are their “real enemy” and that God would have taken “vengeance upon them himself” but instead ordered Muslims to engage in an armed struggle against the Jewish people.
In a video documented by Memri, an organization that monitors Islamist extremism, Imam Sheikh Younus Kathrada told youth on Aug. 2 at the Muslim Youth Center in Victoria, B.C., that God has ordered them to fight Jews.
“Never be afraid to describe the yahud (the Jew), the real enemy the way that…Allah has described them. If Allah had willed, he could have taken vengeance upon them himself. But he ordered armed struggle,” Kathrada said in a video posted by Muslim Youth Victoria on YouTube. “(God) ordered armed struggle to test some of you by means of others, and those who are killed in the cause of Allah, He…will never waste their deeds.”
B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish community group, has been documenting antisemitism in Canada and called on the government to denounce Kathrada and safety officials to investigate him since 2004.
In his latest sermon at the Muslim Youth Victoria Islamic Centre, Kathrada outlined several reasons why he thinks Jewish people are collectively guilty and deserving of God’s vengeance.
“(The Jews) are a small group that spreads corruption throughout the land,” Kathrada said. “The yahud have an ancient and dark history of bloodshed and breaking covenants and treaties…Not even fetuses in the wombs are safe from them.”
Mike Fegelman, the executive director of Honest Reporting Canada, an organization which focuses on Canada’s media coverage of Jewish people and Israel, said his group had filed a report against Kathrada with the Victoria Police Department.
“This is the natural, even expected, consequence of a society-wide tolerance of anti-Jewish and anti-Western rhetoric from fanatical Islamists,” Fegelman said in an email to True North. “Spreaders of hate must be charged with hate speech, and far more Canadians must vocally speak out and demand concrete action.”
He claimed the recent uptick in antisemitic hate crimes in Canada and B.C. stems first from divisive language, including teachings espoused by Kathrada. In December 2022, Kathrada was documented again with a similar message.
“I want our children to understand this well: the non-Muslims are the enemies of Allah; therefore, they are your enemies,” he said to the same group of youth in Victoria, B.C. “Some of them don’t even believe that Allah exists. You want somebody like that to be a close friend of yours?”
He then led the group in a prayer, praying that God destroy, humiliate and annihilate the non-Muslims of the world.
“Oh Allah, give strength to Islam and the Muslims, humiliate the infidels and the polytheists, destroy the enemies of (our) religion. Annihilate the heretics and the atheists.”
The B.C. Muslim Association did not respond to True North’s requests for comment, though the group had denounced Kathrada in December 2020.
Rich Robertson, the director of advocacy and research at B’nai Brith Canada, calls on all levels of government and police to take action against the religious leader, saying his comments are incitements to violence against Jews.
“Younus Kathrada has repeatedly demonstrated that he is utilizing his pulpit to espouse hate and to target the Jewish community, the LGBTQ community and other minority communities in Canada,” Robertsen told True North in an interview.
He said B’nai Brith Canada’s concerns for Kathrada’s rhetoric are enhanced by his association with the Muslim Youth of Victoria. Robertson raised concerns that he is radicalizing and indoctrinating youth in Canada at a time when national security concerns are increasingly prevalent.
“It can be inferred from his comments that he is calling upon those to whom he is preaching to engage in violent acts against the Jewish community,” Robertson said. “It’s even more culpable that he is a religious leader suggesting that it is required by God that those he is preaching to undertake violence against the Jewish people. It’s an abuse of his authority.”
He said B’nai Brith Canada supports free expression for religious groups as protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, though Kathrada’s repeated antisemitic rhetoric crosses a line.
“There is nothing that justifies using one’s position as a religious leader in this country to call upon your constituents to engage in violent acts against another religious minority,” he said. “This is unacceptable and should not be tolerated in this country.
The Muslim Youth of Victoria and the Victoria police did not respond to True North’s requests for comment. The Mayor of Victoria was unavailable to comment before the deadline provided by True North.
