Two prominent Muslim clerics issued statements urging violence against Israel and the United States, in communication reported by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

Egyptian cleric Safwat Higazi told a television interviewer that the Muslim Brotherhood still harbors ambitions to become "masters of the world." Muslims want peace, he said, but "welcome war" if that doesn't get "what is rightfully ours."

The interview focused primarily on Israel, with Higazi defending a fatwa, or religious edict, calling for the murder of any Israeli a person may encounter. "If that Zionist is fighting me, occupying my country, and killing people who are my brothers in country, religion, and humanity – then it's an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and whoever started it is to blame," he said.

In May, Higazi introduced Brotherhood official Mohamed Morsi's presidential campaign in Egypt, saying Morsi would restore "the United States of the Arabs" with "the capital of the Caliphate" in Jerusalem.

Higazi said he opposes the Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, but then argued it never would have happened if not for the 1973 Yom Kippur war in which Egypt and Syria waged a surprise attack against Israel that eventually was beaten back.

Meanwhile, MEMRI posted translations of a sermon by Somali Sheikh Muhammad Al-Jazouli that appeared on the Internet in May. He criticized what he described as "reality in America," and urged mujahideen, or fighters, to be "steadfast for a little longer on the path of harming America. America is drawing its last breath. Do not let it catch its breath!"

He wished for the power to do more. If he had it, "I swear by Allah that within six months, I would blow up these time bombs, turning the US into a thing of the past."