Following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Egyptian cleric Mazen Sirsawi, which aired on Al-Hekma TV on September 4, 2011:





Mazen Sirsawi: The Caliph Al-Mahdi, the Emir of the Believers, was like a sword on the necks of the infidels, apostates, and heretics. Whenever he heard of a heretic, he summoned him, no matter what. Even when he was on his deathbed, they brought before him some treacherous heretics, who toy with religion.





One of them was brought before the Caliph, who was drawing his last breath. The Caliph said: "By Allah, if I have only two words left, I say: Kill him! I will seal my life with 'Kill him!'" He said: "Kill him, and chop off his limbs, one by one, so that I will please my Lord." They did as he wished, and the Caliph counted the limbs and said: "Allah, I have done with him what pleases You. Enable me to do the same to all his ilk."





Anyone who wants to affront the shari'a and become a heretic, anyone who behaves stupidly, thinking that this is a game, should not think that this will go unpunished. Today, these criminals want us to become used to this. They want us to hear this and remain silent. When someone curses our Lord, [they want us to say]: "Never mind, this is democracy, freedom, and so on. Let's keep quiet about it." Absolutely not! This will never be. One must never remain silent before the people of Falsehood. When Allah made a covenant with the people of knowledge, "You shall make it known to people and not hide it." Beheading them should be easier than cutting the buttons off their shirts.





The truth should not be open to discussion, and the people of Truth should lie in wait for the people of Falsehood. They should not keep silent about a single word. If we give them leeway once, we will never be able to close the door. If a criminal affronts the shari'a and people keep quiet about it – even once – he will not keep quiet anymore. That's it – the door has been opened.





What encouraged that criminal heretic to say that Allah has nothing to do with politics? He saw an even greater heretic say worse things about Allah. If not for the first, the second would not have committed heresy either. But if the first heretic had been beheaded – if the court had sentenced him to death for apostasy, everybody would have known that Islam was the official religion of this country, and that nobody could affront it.





Could any of those cockroaches go to Israel and talk about Judaism that way, or even talk about it in his own home? Could any of those blabbermouths talk about Judaism? Could they doubt the Holocaust – that thing in which they say the Jews were massacred, and so on? If it really happened, they deserved it. Do any of them dare to doubt the Holocaust?





And what about our "geniuses" whose tongues are as long as that, and who affront only the religion of Allah, because they know that it has nobody to defend it? Nobody defends Islam, so they can bully it. But do any of them dare to appear on one of their despicable TV programs, and talk about the Jews, curse one of their leaders, or reject any of their myths? The whole world would be up in arms against him, and he would learn a moral lesson that he would never ever forget.





[…]





In Islam, an apostate is punished by death. There is no dispute about this. Let none of those blabbermouths say to you: "There's no punishment for an apostate in Islam. I've never seen such a thing." Fine, so you're blind, what do you want from us? You have no sight and no sight. How could you not see it?! It is in all the books of jurisprudence.





[…]





Our religion is tolerant, merciful, and all those nice things, but there is no such thing as tolerance towards what is wrong. What do they do with a killer anywhere in the world? Do they caress, hug, and kiss him? Or do they kill him, or at least sentence him to life in prison? The killer should be killed. He should be sentenced to death. Don't we have the death sentence? It exists in all the laws in the world.





Doesn't that constitute cruelty, violence, even terrorism? "No," they say – "not at all. It is in order to reduce crime. The crime he committed is worse than his punishment." Well, we have such a thing as well. We have a punishment for apostates. There are people who deserve such a punishment. What is the difference? Why do you have reservations when it happens here, but are pleased about it when it happens over there? Why don't you tell them, in America and Europe, to ban capital punishment, to ban life terms, and to shut down Guantanamo? In Guantanamo there are torture methods that do not exist anywhere in the world, except in Egypt. Nobody tops them but our own security agencies.



