North American Imams calling to murder Jews
North American Imams calling to murder Jews

Muslim immigration into North America has brought with it several religious preachers who call for the murder of Jews. This happens sometimes in mosques where these words are occasionally even cheered by the hating faithful. This type of incitement is also frequently found on social media.

The same extreme hatemongering by Muslim preachers in Western Europe has been previously exposed by this writer. The incitement by Muslims against Jews in the Western world has increased as a result of the nonselective immigration policy of these countries. Hate imams living in democracies calling for the murder of Jews is a reality which is not looked at systematically despite the fact that it should be subjected to extreme scrutiny.

A few examples of North American imams calling for the murder of Jews will illustrate this. In 2017, Ramadan Elsabagh head of the Islamic Services Foundation Quran Institute in Garland Texas, posted a recorded prayer to his Facebook page caling to “destroy the Zionists and their allies, and those who assist them and those who allowed them into the abodes of the Muslims. . . Oh Allah save [Al Aqsa] from the hands of the accursed violators. . . . Oh Allah destroy them.” Elsabagh is also a featured Quran reader on many internet sites.

When President Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017, Imam Raed Saleh Al-Rousan of Houston, Texas preached that "Muslims should fight the Jews.” He spoke in Arabic. The Washington-based MEMRI Institute uploaded an English translation of his inciting words to their website. Al-Rousan then apologized saying that he is opposed to all forms of terrorism.  

Around the same time, Imam Abdullah Khadra of Raleigh, North Carolina mentioned a Hadith - a traditional saying of Mohammed - about killing Jews.

In Jersey City. New Jersey, Imam Aymen El Kasaby called the Jews "apes and pigs." He promoted their annihilation and was cheered on by people attending his sermon. He prayed to Allah: "Count them one by one, and kill them down to the very last one, do not leave a single one on the face of the earth." The worshippers He prayed to Allah: "Count them one by one, and kill them down to the very last one, do not leave a single one on the face of the earth." The worshippers responded "Amen."

responded "Amen."

The Islamic Center of Jersey City suspended El Kasaby for four months without pay. Yet, the fact that his employers allow this extreme hate monger to continue to preach shows that the problem surpasses a few extreme individuals. These expressions of hatred usually go beyond even the extremes of right wing antisemitism.  

At the Davis Islamic Center in Northern California, Imam Ammar Shahin preached in his sermon that the Jews were contaminating Muslim shrines with their filth. He said:  "Oh Allah, count them one by one and annihilate them down to the very last one."  Afterwards, the Imam apologized to the people he had offended.

Canada is not spared either. In 2004, South African-born Sheik Younus Kathrada from Vancouver referred to Jews as "the brothers of the monkeys and the swine” in sermons posted on the Internet. He said that the Prophet tells: "Oh Muslim, Oh slave of Allah.., behind me is a Jew. Then come and kill him." He added that Islamic scripture predicted an apocalyptic battle with the Jews. Kathrada said, "Unfortunately we hear too many people saying we must build bridges with them. No. They understand one language. It is the language of the sword, and it is the only language they understand."

In 2016, Imam Ayman El-Kasrawy based in Toronto, said: “O Allah, whoever wishes ill for us and wishes ill for Islam and the Muslims, make his plot tied around his neck. O Allah, turn fate against them and annihilate them as you annihilated the peoples of Aad and Thamud.”

Imams who advocate mass murder are only the tip of the iceberg of the hatred coming out of segments of Muslim society in the U.S. Imam Abdul Alim Musa – an African American convert -- spoke at the Al-Islam Mosque in Washington in 2016 and said about Trump that the Zionists will "bring a fool to power anytime they can, to do their bidding."  He accused Zionists of creating a Hitler-like environment similar to the one existing before World War II. He also claimed that Zionists were behind the terror attacks on the World Trade Centre on 9/11 and then framed Muslims.  

On October 18, 2018 at the Islamic Center of South Florida, Imam Hasan Sabri called for the liberation of Palestine even at the cost of tens of millions of Muslim lives.  

The extreme hate speech by several imams and the support of their faithful exposes a structural problem in American society. The First Amendment of the Constitution’s free speech rules apparently enables both incitement to murder and applauding it. If these preachers do not have American citizenship, the U.S. should have expelled them. Yet, it may take a long time before Americans become aware of the need to change the Constitution to make such hate speech punishable.

Unhindered extreme hate mongering raises additional issues.  Beyond the inciter and his followers there are also whitewashers of incitement. By far the most powerful one is former American President Barack Obama. He described Islam as having a tradition of “peace, charity and justice.” Obama had been a Muslim in his youth when he lived in Indonesia with his stepfather. He should have known better than most Americans that Islam also has a major tradition of religiously motivated extreme violence. Obama should have consulted the former imam of the Grand Mecca Mosque, Sheikh Adel Al Kalbani who asserted that ISIS uses what he considers legitimate Islamic ideas to carry out its crimes.

 

Unfortunately, the above examples have not convinced American Jewish leaders to object strongly to the current immigration policy that does not vet those entering the country for anti-Semitic attitudes. There are already enough anti-Semites in the U.S. It is in American Jewry’s interest that additional hatemongers be kept out.