Amjad Qourshah, an Islamic studies professor at the University of Amman in Jordan with ties to the Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), has unleashed a tirade of anti-Christian venom against Egypt’s Copts, accusing them of burning their own churches.

His Facebook tirade, translatedhere by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, also included an image of Jesus that is reminiscent of the 2006 Danish cartoon depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad with abomb in his turban.

In this case, the Sacred Heart image depicts Jesus with an AK-47 over his shoulder with a bomb halo surrounding his head, saying “Jesus says: ‘Sell your clothes and buy arms.” The caption above the image says: “The way to hypocrisy For the Orthodox Copts.”

Qourshah has spoken to MAS audiences twice this year – appearing at events inChicago in May and in Dallas earlier this month. He also spoke at the MAS-ICNA convention last December.

The publication of the Muhammad cartoon led to widespread rioting and was condemned by MAS and by other Muslim groups around the world.

“This has nothing to do with free speech,” Mahdi Bray, then-head of MAS’s political arm, said after the Philadelphia Inquirer republished the Muhammad cartoon in February 2006. “It’s pure sensationalism that reeks of religious disrespect.”

MAS and fellow Islamist groups, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), have been silent about the violence against Egypt’s Christians by the Muslim Brotherhood. Those groups either have roots in the Muslim Brotherhood or have worked with it. The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has similarly been silent.

“It is entirely predictable that such a person would be invited to speak for the Muslim American Society (MAS), which has been referred to as part of the ‘nucleus’ of the Muslim Brotherhood here in the United States,” said Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. “Only a brief perusal of the responses to the current situation in Egypt from Muslim Brotherhood legacy groups in the United States reveals a deep and abiding loyalty to the Muslim Brotherhood, a disdain for pro-liberty Muslims and dissidents, and ambivalence at very best when it comes to the plight of Christians and other minorities in the Middle East.

“Lines are being drawn in the sand, and as more of this rhetoric reveals itself, Americans and others will see the true nature of groups like MAS and others,” Jasser continued. “As we are alarmed, may we be also inspired to act – empowering Muslims and our allies who seek reform of our community and the protection of liberty.”

Qourshah is not an exception when it comes to radical speakers at MAS-ICNA conferences.

Saudi Sheikh Ayed Al-Qarni was considered too radical to be admitted to the United States for last year’s national convention. And MAS violated a promise to no longer invite Egyptian Islamist Ragheb Elsergany to its events after he launched into an extreme anti-Israel diatribe at the December 2009 MAS-ICNA convention.

At least 58 churches, Christian schools and monasteries have been torched by Muslim Brotherhood supporters in the past week in the worst anti-Christian violence in Egypt in 700 years. Egypt’s Youm7 reports that more than 200 homes and businesses owned by Copts and other Christian groups also have been torched since Egyptian security forces stormed the Muslim Brotherhood’s encampments in Cairo last Wednesday. At least nine Christians have been killed around Egypt in the past week.

Qourshah alleged it is all a conspiracy. “The Christians are burning their churches on the instructions of State Security to win the sympathy of the West so that it continues to support the coup,” he wrote Aug. 14 on his Facebook page.

The absurdity of Qourshah’s rhetoric is underscored by the fact rioters who torched St. George Cathedral in Sohag were heard screaming “Allahu Akbar!” as they burned the church to the ground. A memo published last week purportedly from the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, similarly attacked the Copts and appears to endorse the church burnings. Anti-Christian graffiti with slogans such as “Mohamed is the prophet of Allah” and “Islam is the solution” have been commonplace. The Coptic Catholic bishop of Luxor reported that Islamists tried breaking into his house to torch it.

In at least one instance, a banner resembling al-Qaida’s black flag was hoisted over a gate where the cross had been.

Additionally, Muslim Brotherhood gangs marked Christian homes and businesseswith check marks before they were torched. In the town of Minya black “X”s were scrawled on Christian-owned stores while red “X”s were painted on Muslim-owned stores.

Moderate Muslims who have no connections with the Brotherhood have helped their Christian neighbors fight the fires.

Read more at IPT News