Clerical Errors
Shocking quotes from Islamic clerics
A clerical error is a harmless slip: a typo, a wrong date, a misplaced decimal point. The errors collected here are of another kind. They come from imams, muftis, ayatollahs and preachers, and they call for the death of apostates, the stoning of adulterous women, the sale of captives and the killing of Jews.
These are not words from the fringe. Alongside a few small-time preachers, you will find two Grand Muftis of Saudi Arabia, a Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the head of Turkey’s state religious authority and two Supreme Leaders of Iran. Each quote comes with its source. Check them: that is what they are for.
We do not target believers, who are often the first victims of these sermons. We target the men who speak in God’s name from a pulpit, a ministry or a television studio. Most of them are not misreading their scriptures: they quote them chapter and verse. Clerical errors usually get corrected. These ones get applause. Their critics have the floor in Unforgivable Sentences.
Filter by category Slavery 5 quotes
- Incitement to Hatred and Violence15
- Jihad and the establishment of a global caliphate14
- Violation of women's rights9
- Death penalty8
- Antisemitism7
- Superiority of Islam and Muslims6
- Prohibition of freedom of thought and expression5
- Slavery5
- Hatred of non-Muslims4
- LGBTQ+ repression4
- Obscurantism4
- Dress code for women3
- Apostasy2
- Ban on blasphemy2
- Forced conversions2
- Marriage of underage girls2
- Persecution of minority communities2
- Physical and psychological abuse of children2
- Domestic violence1
- Extramarital sexual relations1
- Flogging, Stoning and Other Corporal Punishments1
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I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah. There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women.
Abubakar Shekau Leader of Boko Haram (Nigeria) · Video claiming the Chibok kidnapping, May 5, 2014 Source -
If only we can conduct a jihadist invasion at least once a year or if possible twice or three times, then many people on earth would become Muslims. […] Such battles will fill the pockets of the Mujahid who can return home with 3 or 4 slaves, 3 or 4 women and 3 or 4 children. This can be a profitable business if you multiply each head by 300 or 400 dirham.
Abu Ishaq al-Huwaini Salafi preacher (Egypt) · Lecture from the 1990s, released in 2011 Source -
Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long as there is Islam.
Saleh al-Fawzan Member of the Council of Senior Scholars, Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia since 2025 · Recorded lecture, 2003 Source -
If you can kill a disbelieving American or European, especially the spiteful and filthy French, or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be. […] We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women, by the permission of Allah, the Exalted.
Abu Muhammad al-Adnani Spokesman for the Islamic State · Speech “Indeed Your Lord Is Ever Watchful”, September 22, 2014 Source -
[Their right to make war on nations that had done them no injury] was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, […] it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.
Sidi Haji Abdrahaman Ambassador of Tripoli to London · Reported by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, March 28, 1786, March 1786 Source
