A journalist from a UK-based, English-language Islamist media outlet said in an interview with a podcast that Arab countries normalizing ties with Israel is extremely unacceptable, adding that it must cease to exist no matter how long it would take.
#ICYMI: British Islamist Roshan Salih, Editor of the 5Pillars Outlet: Israel Cannot Exist in the Middle East; It Must Be Our Focus as Muslims to Ensure It Ceases to Exist; The Arab Regimes Are Normalizing with Israel, But It Must Never Be Granted Any Legitimacy Whatsoever pic.twitter.com/lAdSaZQ8uT
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) January 25, 2025
Roshan Salih, the Islamist editor of 5Pillars, made these remarks during a January 4 interview on the outlet’s Blood Brothers podcast, hosted by British Islamist activist Dilly Hussain. He said that current Arab regimes, which he described as secular and dictatorial, have been pursuing the normalization of relations with Israel.
"All the secular states in the region, the Arab dictator states, they all justify their alliance with Israel, or their lack of aggressive posture towards Israel, on this basis. 'We need time to rebuild; we are not in a position to fight,' etc. And you can see what path, long term, these states have gone down, is to complete normalization, complete warm relationships with Israel.”
He also said that Israel, which he described as an apartheid state in the Middle East, cannot continue to exist, and it needs to become a main focus for Muslims, regardless of how long it would take.
How that going?
— Kim ill Baba (@NotKimXKim) January 25, 2025
"So, as far as I am concerned, this is still a state that has to... that cannot exist. It cannot exist as an apartheid state in the Middle East. And this has to be our focus as Muslims, however long it takes. Whether it takes my lifetime, our children's lifetimes, our grandchildren's lifetime – this is what has to happen,” Salih argued.
However, he said that it wouldn’t mean fighting Israel but rather refusing the Jewish state to be given legitimacy, adding that there can be no legitimacy for Israel.
“There can be no legitimacy for Israel whatsoever. That doesn't mean you have to be fighting it. It just means that you cannot give it one inch of legitimacy," Salih said.
22 Arab/Muslim Apartheid countries across 5 million square miles in the Middle East, each invaded and taken by the sword, the indigenous Jews, Christians, Maronites, Assyrians, Zoroastrians killed, ethnically cleansed, forcibly converted and subjugated, and one tiny Jewish State…
— Dr. Henry Silverman (@PropagandaBuff) January 25, 2025
The podcast’s host, Dilly Hussain, agreed with Salih’s statements, adding that he hopes Syria under the new regime led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other Arab and Muslim countries would give this attention.
"Inshallah. I hope that not just new Syria, but that more Arab countries or Muslim countries in general awake to this," Hussain said.
