Vancouver Muslim leader calls Jews ‘monkeys and swine’. (Hat tip: Richard.)

VANCOUVER (CP) - The leader of a Vancouver mosque attended regularly by a local man reported killed in Chechnya has preached the virtues of jihad and called Jews “the brothers of monkeys and swine.”

In a lecture posted on the mosque’s website, Sheik Younus Kathrada tells an audience all real Muslims want to be martyred.

“It is inconceivable that a true believer will not desire martyrdom,” Kathrada says. “When we hear of our fellow Muslims in Palestine and what they’re going through to try and defend that great land for us, the Muslims, that individual should wish that he was there.”

In a recording of another lecture obtained by The Canadian Press, Kathrada lashes out at Israelis for killing Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin late last March.

“We know what happened over the last week and how the brothers of the monkeys and the swine assassinated and murdered one of the heroes of Islam, the Salah al-Din of this day and age, Ahmed Yassin.”

Kathrada tells his audience the Qur’an and its accompanying writings view Jews as treacherous people with whom Muslims will engage in an apocalyptic battle.

“The prophet … said the final hour will not be established until such time as the Muslims will battle and will fight against the Jews,” Kathrada says.

“Then what will happen? Listen to the good news after that. The prophet … says that the stone and the tree will say ‘oh Muslim, oh slave of Allah, that verily behind me is a Jew. Then come and kill him.’”

Kathrada, who works out of the Dar al-Madinah Islamic Society mosque in east Vancouver, said Thursday he could not remember when he gave these talks.

“If it’s on there and my name is on it then I must have. I don’t recall the date,” he said. Kathrada refused to explain the meaning behind the tirade against Jews. “I guess if you heard the lecture then it should be clear to you,” he said.

But he defended his characterization of Jews as treacherous monkeys and pigs. “I guess no rougher than what is used against us,” Kathrada said. “It’s in our Qur’an.”