Fire Four Imams Who Called for Murder of Jews
In recent weeks three more Imams – Syrian-American Imam Abdullah Khadra in Raleigh, NC; Imam Raed Saleh Al-Rousan in Houston, TX; and Imam Aymen Elkasaby in Jersey City, NJ – preached sermons in U.S. mosques calling for murdering Jews. In addition, a fourth, Imam Ramadan Elsabagh of Garland, Texas, called for murdering Jews via Facebook. This is intolerable. Advocating genocide is an internationally recognized crime against humanity. These threats must be taken seriously and responded to with strong action. ZOA calls upon appropriate officials, including the U.S. Justice Department, government officials and Islamic organizations, to assure that these Imams who incited murder are publicly condemned, investigated, fired, and barred from future employment where they could preach murder. Further, ICE should investigate deporting those Imams who hail from overseas who are inciting violence in the U.S.
These four new Nazi-like calls to murder Jews may have occurred because strong action was not taken after California Imam Amar Shahin called for Allah to “annihilate” and “destroy” the Jews this past summer. ZOA called for strong remedial action at that time. (See “ZOA Horrified by US Imam’s Hitler-Like Demand to Murder Jews – Fire Him!,” July 28, 2017.) Failure to adequately respond to such threats will beget more threats.
Incitement to murder Jews can do immense harm. Palestinian Authority dictator Mahmoud Abbas’ calls to spill blood for Jerusalem sparked a wave of terror, commencing in September 2015, in which Palestinian Arab terrorists have murdered 61 and injured 881 innocent Jews, Americans and Palestinian Arab bystanders, in stabbing, car ramming and shooting attacks.
An elderly Jewish gentleman who fled to the U.S. from a Middle Eastern Muslim majority nation about 50 years ago told ZOA this chilling story: “A Jewish family in my country had a Muslim housekeeper for twenty years. She helped raise the children, cleaned the house, and was kind and completely honest. If she found a thousand dollars – or even a penny lying around, she wouldn’t dream of stealing it. It felt like she was part of the family. But then one day, she went to the mosque, and the Imam told her: “You work for Jews. You have to kill them.” The housekeeper went from the mosque and killed members of the Jewish family without thinking twice about it.”
We cannot risk Imams’ calls for murder turning into tragedies.
Unfortunately, as the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) recently noted: “American Islamist groups remained silent in the wake of these sermons, and have not outright condemned the imams’ behavior. It remains to be seen whether these organizations will address the most recent cases of blatant anti-Semitism and terrorist incitement. One case is an aberration. Two cases are noteworthy. This is a trend, however, that largely is going unnoticed.” (“A Disappointing, Muted Response to Imams Calling for Violence,” Investigative Project on Terrorism,” IPT News, Dec. 20, 2017.)