The following are excerpts from a Friday sermon delivered in the Gaza Strip, which aired on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV on March 5, 2010(to view this clip, visit
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2410.htm ).

This is followed by other MEMRI TV clips from Al-Aqsa TV on the coming Islamic 'conquest of Rome' (to view the MEMRI TV page for Al-Aqsa TV, visit
http://www.memritv.org/content/en/tv_channel_indiv.htm?id=175 ).

Hamas Sermon in Gaza: Rome Will Be Conquered by Islam

Preacher: "The prophecy of the conquest of Rome remains valid, Allah willing. Just like Constantinople was conquered some 500 years ago, Rome too will be conquered.

"Our prayers, our fasting, and the charity we give will be to no avail, if we doubt the Prophet Muhammad. How can we proceed along the path of righteousness, if we are not secure in our belief that Rome will be conquered, as promised by the Prophet Muhammad and as proclaimed by Allah?"

(To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1761.htm )

Sheikh Ali Al-Faqir: "We must declare that Palestine, from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, is an Islamic land, and that Spain - Andalusia - is also the land of Islam. Islamic lands that were occupied by the enemies will once again become Islamic. Furthermore, we will reach beyond these countries, which are lost at one point. We proclaim that we will conquer Rome, like Constantinople was conquered once, and as it will be conquered again."

Interviewer: "Allah willing."

Sheik Ali Al-Faqir: "We will rule the world, as has been said by the Prophet Muhammad.

[...]

"We will face a battlefront that is broader and stronger. Its beginnings were in Palestine, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in Chechnya. What has begun will be completed. It will not stop.

[...]

"The Zionist entity reached completion, and it is beginning to decline, until it will wane and come to its end. Similarly, America has occupied, thundered, and foamed with rage, and proclaimed, like Pharaoh, 'I am your supreme God,' but it will come to its end, and they have begun to realize that their end is near. We have begun to read in American and European newspapers that 'our glory is on the wane, and there is nothing we can do about it.' This morning on Al-Jazeera TV, I saw American scientists and strategic theoreticians, who said that America would soon come to its end. They said it before about the USSR, and, indeed, it has come to its end, and we say now that America and the EU will come to an end, and only the rising force of Islam will prevail."