Good news! We aren't apes and pigs; only our ancestors were!

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an address by Algerian cleric Chemseddine el Djazairi, which aired on Ennahar TV on February 8, 2015:

Chemseddine el Djazairi: A viewer asks: What is your position about the prevalent belief that contemporary Jews are of the seed of those who were transformed into apes and pigs? This belief is not true. Contemporary Jews are of the seed of Adam, not of the apes and pigs, because the line of those transformed into apes and pigs was severed.
[…]
A Jew who rebelled so much against God that he was thus transformed – how is this the fault of his children or grandchildren? Perhaps their descendents will convert to Islam, and know that there is no god but Allah. This is in keeping with Islamic law as well as with logic. Those who were transformed are extinct. None exist anymore.
[…]
This transformation is true. Some nations were transformed by Allah into apes and pigs. However, they have no descendents. Get it?

I see a slight inconsistency here; first he ways that today's Jews are not descendants of the apes and pigs, but later he says that the children and grandchildren of the apes and pigs were not transformed. Apparently the apes and pigs could not have human children after the transformation but their existing progeny (if they weren't pig-worthy) remained human.

So when people say that Jews are the "descendants of apes and pigs," they are still speaking accurately according to this moderate cleric.

Good information to have.