AL QUDS, July 8: An imam who led Friday prayers at the Al Quds Al-Aqsa mosque criticised comments made by British Prime Minister Tony Blair over the London bombings.

Saying those behind the attacks acted “in the name of Islam”, Blair said: “it’s through terrorism that the people that have committed this terrible act express their values and it’s right at this moment that we demonstrate ours”.

“Where were the values of Great Britain at the cursed Balfour Declaration, when it gave Jews the right to establish a country on Palestinian land?” Sheikh Yussef Abu Sneineh questioned in his main Friday sermon.

“Our people still pay the price for this declaration and suffer the injustice of aggressors,” he continued.

Issued on November 2, 1917, by British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, the Balfour Declaration said: “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”.

Of Thursday’s bombings in London, Sheikh Abu Sneineh said: “Islam prohibits bloodletting, the murder of innocents as well as oppression and humiliation”.

At least 50 people were killed and around 700 wounded on Thursday when a series of bombs exploded in London.

—AFP