Montreal police are investigating controversial comments made by Montreal imams at a mosque in St. Laurent captured in YouTube videos.
The 2014 videos were posted by a member of the Al-Andalous Islamic Center which was made aware of them only recently and they have since been taken down.
In one, an imam calls on Allah "to destroy the accursed Jews", "to kill them one by one" and "to make their children orphans and their women widows."
The centre has since put out a statement calilng it a "clumsy and unacceptable" phrasing used by a substitute imam, Sayyed Al-Ghitaoui. The centre also said the comments were "tainted by an abusive generalization," calling it " serious mistake." The centre says it's met with the man who says he's "recognized his errors and the dangerous phrasing that could be misinterpreted by anyone listening to his speech."
But the centre has not addressed another video by its regular imam, Wael Al-Ghitaoui saying Jews were punished by Allah for the Middle East conflict.
"On one level, it's disturbing that these speeches were ever given. It's doubly disturbing that they had a shelf life on the Internet for two to three years now without objection," said rabbi Reuben Poupko, co-chair of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs in Quebec.
"It is really, to use a mild word, troubling that an institution in our city would have permitted this and would have not only permitted it once but on repeated occasions."
The center said they don't have control over videos posted on the internet by a member, adding it strongly condemns all hate speech and apologizes if anyone was offended.