Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian cleric Safwat Higazi, which aired on Al-Quds TV on July 18, 2011.
Safwat Higazi: "Anyone who thinks this is a conflict between the Jews, the Zionists, or the Israelis and the Palestinians does not understand properly what's going on. I believe that this is a matter of creed. It is a mistake to think that this is a struggle between these Zionists, Jews, Israelis, or foreign riffraff, on the one hand, and the Palestinians, on the other hand. No, this is a real conflict between two religions. It's the conflict of the Arab-Islamic nation – not merely of the Palestinian nation." […]
Interviewer: "You seem to have reservations about using the "Jews."
Safwat Higazi: "This is because I do not acknowledge the Jewishness of the people who came from Germany, Albania, Poland, and France, to live in the land of Palestine. I do not recognize them as Jews. They are not the Jews who followed Allah's prophet Moses. They are not the Jews to whom Allah's prophet Jesus was sent. They are not even the Jews who distorted the Torah in the 7th century. They are not the people we refer to as Jews."
Interviewer: "So where did these Jews living in Palestine come from?"
Safwat Higazi: "Those who profess to be Jews are foreign riffraff, as I told you. They originated from the Khazar Jews who lived in Romania or Poland, after having been banished from Spain during the Inquisition. They were Jews by religion, and they were banished, and they lived in these countries as Khazar Jews… They are not related in any way to the Israelites – not in their race, their dynasty, or their religion. […]
"What was on the minds of Theodor Herzl and his forefathers was the hatred of the international community toward those so-called Jews, and the corruption and evil that they have brought upon the world, ever since they tried to kill Christ. These people earned much hatred and loathing. Herzl wanted to give himself and the world a break, so he began to consider establishing this state." […]
