Prominent American Islamic scholar Sheikh Yasir Qadhi delivered a lecture titled "The Signs of the End Times, Part 4" at the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC Masjid) in Plano, TX, where he is the resident scholar. He discussed a hadith that says that at the End of Times, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, which will call to the Muslims and tell them to come and kill the Jews hiding behind them. Sheikh Qadhi said this hadith is not antisemitic whatsoever, and he criticized MEMRI and Fox News for clipping Muslim scholars in the West who cite this hadith and for accusing these clerics of Hitler-esque antisemitism.
Seeking to justify the use of the hadith, Sheikh Qadhi said that the hadith simply means that most of the Antichrist's followers will be Jews, and that the hadith is merely describing a struggle between good and evil. He added that even though it explicitly mentions killing Jews, the hadith is predictive rather than prescriptive, and he claimed that Muslims cannot be antisemitic since Abraham and the Prophet Muhammad were Semites and since the majority of Semites are Muslims.
Saying that Muslims would have been obligated to protect Jews from the Nazis during WWII, Sheikh Qadhi added that events that took place after 1948 have nothing to do with events that took place before 1948. He further stated: "Muslims cannot be antisemites [but] we can be anti-Zionists, and we are anti-Zionists." The video was uploaded to EPIC Masjid's YouTube channel on August 31, 2019.
Sheikh Qadhi is a Texas-based[1] Pakistani-American scholar who has studied at the University of Houston, at the Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia, and at Yale University.[2]
To view the clip of Sheikh Qadhi on MEMRI TV, click here or below.
Many Of The Antichrist's Followers "Will Be From That Group [The Jews]," And "For All We Know, There Might Be Jews, As Well, Who Will Choose... The Truth"
Sheikh Yasir Qadhi: "[There are] hadiths that mention that towards the End of Times, when the big Armageddon battle takes place, there shall be the antichrist on one side and Jesus on the other – that is the final Armageddon, the big one... Jesus will kill the antichrist, and then all of the followers of the antichrist will disperse, running for their lives. Many of them will be from that group [the Jews], and they will try to save themselves by hiding.
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"For all we know, there might be Jews, as well, who will choose, at that time, to be with the truth. The hadiths don't mention that all of them will follow [the antichrist]. It just says that the majority of his followers will be from there. There is a difference between the two."
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"Every Once In A While, Some Innocent Preacher Somewhere In The Western World Gives A Sermon And Quotes This Hadith, And MEMRI Jumps On Him, You Know What MEMRI Is? If You Don't, Then You Were Blessed By Allah"
"The hadith mentions that every tree and every rock will say to the believer: 'Come, there is – that person – behind, come and he is hiding.' So that there is no use to hide anymore, because the creation of Allah will publicly humiliate [the Jew] and say: 'Oh, he is hiding here, come and deal with this person.'
"Except for the tree of Gharqad, that is a tree that will be quiet and not side with the Muslims. Every once in a while, some innocent preacher somewhere in the Western world gives a sermon and quotes this hadith, and MEMRI jumps on him. You know what MEMRI is? If you don't, then you were blessed by Allah. Or, Fox News jumps on him, or Pamela Geller jumps on him, and takes this small clip and goes viral with it, and says: 'Oh, this is an anti-Semite and he is calling for the destruction [of the Jews], and he is Hitler version 2.73, and he is this and that.'
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"This raises a very difficult topic. Are these hadiths antisemitic? The response, I think, is very clear.
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"Antisemitism Is A European Phenomenon, It Is Not A Muslim Phenomenon"
"First and foremost, as a matter of principle, these are traditions that are found in books authored 1,200 years ago – books of hadith. Censorship doesn't make any sense. Are you, oh you people who are criticizing books of the past, going to censor your own books and not teach them when they have misogyny, when they have race issues, and when they have issues that might be politically incorrect? There is hardly a classical book except that there are phrases or notions... Even Shakespeare has antisemitism. Read The Merchant of Venice – it is a purely antisemitic tract. Are you going to ban The Merchant of Venice? Are you going to stop it and strip it from being sold? Are you going to take it and make it non-available? The hypocrisy is ludicrous. You don't go back and sanitize history just because you don't like it. Even if you don't like it, it needs to be taught and explained and clarified. That is a matter of principle, and that is what liberalism stands on. When it comes to every faith other than Islam, they uphold it. When it comes to Islam we see the double standard."
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"We need to stop being so defensive. Let us be frank and honest here. Study history, oh Muslims, be educated. Antisemitism is a European phenomenon, it is not a Muslim phenomenon. It never existed in Muslim lands up until 1947.
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"Throughout the world, the largest population of Jews before 1947 was in Muslim lands – in Yemen, in Iraq, in Morocco, in Egypt..."
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"These Are Not Antisemitic Hadiths Whatsoever, It Is Merely Describing A Battle Towards The End Of Times"
"The hadiths do mention killing [Jews]. Let's be honest here. The hadiths do mention it. They do mention it. Let us realize, these hadiths are predictions, not prescriptions. Big difference.
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"These are not antisemitic hadiths whatsoever. It is merely describing a battle towards the End of Times [between] the forces of good and the forces of evil. Those who choose the forces of evil will have to suffer the consequences. Simple as that. You don't believe in this battle – then don't quote ten words and ignore the 100-word hadith. Don't quote that one phrase about [what] the tree is going to say and ignore the whole context. That is being hypocritical."
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"It Would Be A Part Of Our Faith To Protect The Innocent From This Evil Force Of Nazi Hitlerism"
"I have visited those places, Auschwitz and Dachau and others. I will tell you honestly – and this is a reality that Allah knows – if I were alive, at that time frame, I would have thought that it is something that Allah would reward me for if I were to protect these believers in Allah – overall – from that evil that was taking place. What happened afterwards – 1948 and onwards – is not related to what happened before.
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"It would be a part of our faith to protect the innocent from this evil force of Nazi Hitlerism. That is something I firmly believe, whether you agree or not is beside the point."
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"We Muslims Cannot Be Antisemites... We Can Be Anti-Zionists"
"We Muslims cannot be antisemites because our Prophet was a Semite and Abraham was a Semite. The majority of Semites are Muslims. How can Muslims be antisemites? Yes, we can be anti-Zionists, and we are anti-Zionists."
