By Eli Mendez Garcia —
Imam Khalid Radwan called the Jews “apes and pigs” on Oct. 23 in a California mosque in a video reposted by MEMRI watchdog group.
“We always say (Jews are) أحفاد القردة والخنازير (offspring of apes and pigs),” Radwan preaches on Friday sermon.
In the sermon, he associated Jews with corruption and narrated a classical story about the Jews of Medina trying to circumvent Allah’s ban on Saturday work by building a trench to catch the fish that swam and threw themselves on shore on Saturday.
“Allah changed them from human beings to monkeys,” he said.
He’s referencing an authentic hadith in Sahih Muslim (2663) which states that the transformed people/apes left no descendants: “Allah did not destroy a people—or punish a people—and then make for them offspring. Apes and pigs existed before that.”
The phrase “offspring/descendants of apes and pigs” (ahfād al-qirada wa al-khanāzīr) is widely applied to contemporary Jews in sermons, media and education.
Calling Jews “pigs and apes” is common among Muslims of the Middle East, Northern Africa and especially in the Palestinian territories.
MEMRI and other monitors have recorded 100s of examples over decades from top clerics (including former Al-Azhar sheikhs and the Mecca Grand Mosque Imam), Hamas/Palestinian Authority media and sermons, Egyptian and Saudi TV, Iranian outlets, school curricula, and even children’s programming.
The antisemitic trope appears in Hamas materials, PA TV sermons, and public discourse.
ADL Global 100 data shows extremely high rates of antisemitic attitudes in these regions (often 74–97% of adults endorsing six or more common antisemitic stereotypes), with the West Bank/Gaza, Kuwait and Indonesia among the highest.
Many Muslims reject the slur as antisemitic or as a misapplication of verses that concern a specific ancient group (emphasizing the hadith that the transformed left no offspring).
Radwan continued his sermon blaming the West for the internecine warfare that has raged between Sunnis and Shi’ites very nearly since Islam’s inception. According to Radwan, the West wants to indiscriminately kill Muslims and stirred up the bad blood between Sunnis and Shi’ites.
Sources: Memri, Grok.
