The Moroccan-born imam of a mosque near Barcelona has been accused of incitement to racism after he praised Hitler and supported the Holocaust in an interview in a local newspaper in Sabadell this week.
"Hitler realised that the Jews were taking all Germany's wealth. He wasn't mad, nor was he stupid. He merely administered insecticide on the [Jewish] worms so that the German plant could flourish," said Imam Abdelilah el Aroua, mullah of the Can Puigjaner Mosque.
The Catalan government has asked the regional high court to investigate the Imam with a view to bringing charges against him.
"His words are very dangerous to harmony in Catlan society and could create divisions," a government spokesman said. "They are particularly serious because they were made by a person of great influence among his people," he added.
The remarks made by Imam el Aroua (37) have surprised many local people who say he had earned a reputation as a liberal, tolerant man, and was popular with his non-Muslim neighbours.
But he told Diario de Sabadell that there is not even a long-term solution to the Palestine-Israeli conflict.
"There is no solution. The Jews only understand the language of violence. That is why we have no word for "love" or "forgiveness" in the Koran when referring to Jews. There has always been hatred between us," he said.
Some people have already expressed their concern that the often bloody television coverage of the conflict in Palestine could incite anti-Semitic attacks. They appear to have inspired the imam's surprising remarks, which have forced him into hiding. His wife, who is currently preparing her doctorate in chemistry, said they were afraid of reprisals from Jews in Barcelona.
"We have been shocked by the pictures of Jews killing innocent children, because this is a war of stones against guns," she said, adding that the television was on while her husband was giving the interview. "Of course we are against the Nazis and any kind of racism. But my husband was confused after seeing what was happening in Gaza and the West Bank."
"And what would you have done if they had killed your children?" asked Imam el Aroua, referring to the mob lynching of two Israeli soldiers.
It is the second time in a couple of months that imams in Spain have made the headlines. Women's organisations were furious when the imam of a mosque in Andalucia issued a brochure for the male members of his congregation telling them how to discipline their women.
One particularly controversial section gives instructions to the men on how to beat their wives without leaving any visible marks.