Over the weekend, more than 200 of the top clerics and scholars of the Religion of Peace™ met in “moderate” Istanbul to call for murdering lots more Jews, and to promise their support to the terrorist gang Hamas.

At a weekend meeting in Istanbul, 200 religious scholars and clerics met with senior Hamas officials to plot a new jihad centred on Gaza.

The BBC’s Bill Law was the only Western journalist at the meeting.

In a hall crowded with conservative Sunni Muslim sheikhs and scholars, in a hotel close to Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport speaker after speaker called for jihad against Israel in support of Hamas.

The choice of Turkey was significant. Arab hardliners were keen to put aside historic differences with the Turks.

As one organiser put it: “During the past 100 years relations have been strained but Palestine has brought us together.”

Many delegates spoke appreciatively of the protest by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who stormed out of a Davos debate on Gaza two weeks ago. …

Mohammed Nazzal, a senior Hamas leader based in Damascus, challenged Arab governments to “open their borders and allow the fighters to come.”

Delegates from all over the Middle East, and from Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan and Indonesia applauded as he stabbed the air with a raised finger and declared: “There will be no agreement with Israel… only weapons will bring respect.”

Mr Nazzal told his audience: “Don’t worry about casualties.”

More importantly, this conference represented something of a coup for Hamas. They were promised weapons, money and fighters.

I don’t get it. Didn’t Obama just reach out to the Muslim world? Weren’t they listening to his message of hope, change, and unclenched fists?

(Hat tip: UK Phil.)