Following are excerpts from a public address delivered by PA Minister of Religious Endowments Mahmoud Habbash, which aired on Palestinian Authority TV on September 3, 2010:

Mahmoud Habbash: What is the secret behind the timing of the armed operations carried out in the West Bank? We would like to understand the secret behind this timing. Sheik Ahmad Yassin was killed, then Sheik Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rantisi was killed, then the [Hamas] leaders in Gaza were killed, and then Gaza was pulverized in the recent war – yet we did not hear a single bullet fly. We did not see any of these people.

When the people of the West Bank would set out to the wall, and would wage a popular resistance to challenge the settlements, the wall, the oppression, and the plundering of our lands, we did not see a single [Hamas member]. Where were they?

All of a sudden... The very moment President "Abu Mazen" [Mahmoud Abbas] arrived in Washington, and Netanyahu found himself with his back against the wall, and had no choice but to accommodate himself to the international proposal, Netanyahu is saved, all of a sudden, and the Palestinians find themselves in trouble. This operation saved the Israeli prime minister. Immediately after it, we heard the US President talking about nothing but Israel's security. All other issues were pushed aside to make way for the security of Israel.

Who gave them cause for this? Those who were behind... I'm not saying those who carried out... It was those who did the planning, gave the green light, and made the political decision. It would be one thing if the political decision had come from within Palestine, from Gaza, but it came from Tehran, where one finds the grave of Abu Lu'lu' Al-Majusi, the killer of [Caliph] 'Omar Ibn Al-Khattab. It came from where those who curse [Caliphs] Abu Bakr and 'Omar live, and those who affront the honor of 'Aisha. The [Shiites] say that the Koran held by the Muslims today is forged. They deny the Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad, and accuse his companions of heresy.

Then, two days ago, a Hamas leader said: "Khomeini was an entire nation embodied in a single man." He called Khomeini "a conqueror," and so on and so forth. Brothers, Khomeini wrote, in his book, The Islamic Government, that the status of the Shiite Imams is not attained even by the angels or the prophets. Can that still be called Islam? Can he still be referred to as a nation embodied in a man?

Khaled Mash'al said that Hamas is the legitimate son of Imam Khomeini. If Imam Khomeini – or just Khomeini without the "imam" – said that the status of their imams was higher than that of the angels or the prophets – in other words, that their imams are better than the Prophet Muhammad, and better than the angels and all the prophets – what verdict is he accorded in Islam? What verdict is accorded to someone who considers himself to be a spiritual son of one who utters such heresy?

Furthermore, Khomeini, may Allah curse him, said that their imams have a generative authority, to which all the particles of the universe are subject. In other words, they are capable of saying "let there be..." and it happens. Who has such power? Allah. It can be found in Khomeini's The Islamic Government.

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