New Jersey-based Imam Mateen Khan said during a lecture at the Muslim Center of Middlesex County, NJ, (MCMC) that liberalism is a philosophy that requires everybody to adopt it, and that holds that those who don't accept liberalism are a threat. Giving the example of Afghanistan, a country which he said the U.S. invaded under the pretext of empowering Afghani women, Khan said that those who do not accept liberalism are forced to accept it with the pretext of women's rights, LGBT rights, and combating intolerance. He said that liberals want Muslims to allow them to exercise their freedom of speech to insult the Prophet Muhammad. Later in the lecture, Khan said that the Jews in Europe had been hated and used as a scapegoat because Europeans were antisemitic. He then claimed that some Israeli psychologists had written that the Zionists had successfully convinced the Europeans to hate the Arabs and Palestinians – who he explained are also Semitic – instead of the Jews, by telling them that the Palestinians are the backwards, monotheistic Semites who should really be hated. The lecture was uploaded to MCMC's YouTube channel on December 30, 2018. Khan is a religious adviser at the Islamic Circle of Mercer County (ICMC) and also teaches at the Lantern Initiative, whose website says it "is dedicated to carrying the Tradition (Sunnah) of our Prophet Muhammad."
To view the clip of Imam Mateen Khan on MEMRI TV, click here or below.
"It Is A Cultural War – [Liberalism] Is A Philosophy That They Want To Spread"
Imam Mateen Khan: "When we talk about liberalism we are talking about a political and moral philosophy. The people who are its proponents say it is built on liberty and equality. So what liberals say... They espouse a wide variety of views, depending on their understanding of principles. Like I said, it is a philosophy. It is a world view, it is how you think. So generally, they support the concept of civil rights, democracy, secularism, gender equality, racial equality, internationalism, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press... Now I know most of us are listening to these words and thinking: 'What's wrong with that?' We will get there.
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"For those of us old enough to remember when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan: Why did they invade Afghanistan? What was the reason?
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"It was the empowerment of women. [They said that] the Taliban are not letting the women get an education, and that the Taliban are not letting the women walk in the streets like they used to. And they would show pictures from the 1940s and 1950s, of Afghani women in skirts, walking around freely... [They said:] 'We need to save these women.' [They told] the women in this country: 'You need to save your sisters. The way that you are living here – don't you want them to have the same?'
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"It is a cultural war. It is a philosophy that they want to spread. If you don't want to adopt [liberalism] on your own... [They say:] 'If you as a Muslim people do not want to adopt our philosophy on your own, then we will bring it to you with the excuse of women and LGBT, and the excuse of the intolerance that you have in your land.'"
"They Want You To Take On The Philosophy Of Liberalism, And In Doing That, You Will Leave The Philosophy That Islam Brings With It"
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"Liberalism, by its core, is meant for everyone. Therefore, everyone must accept it, and if there are people aren't [accepting it], then that is a threat to [liberals'] core identity. And they need to find a way to get rid of it.
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"They want you to take on the philosophy of liberalism, and in doing that, you will leave the philosophy that Islam brings with it.
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"[They say:] 'You have to adopt what we believe in, as far as freedoms go. It is our ideology that we should be free to say whatever we want, so you need to let us curse the Prophet Muhammad, because if you don't, then you are backwards – you are not liberal, and you are not meant for the 21st century.' This is what you are being converted to. [They say:] 'You can have Muhammad. He was a great man, but he should not have done what he did to [the Jews of] Banu Qurayza. No one did in history what he did – but he should not have married Aisha.'"
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"Look At The Jews: Historically, The Jews Were Hated In Europe, They Were Blamed For All Kinds Of Problems – They Were The Scapegoat"
"Look at the Jews. Historically, the Jews were hated in Europe. They were blamed for all kinds of problems. They were the scapegoat. When something went bad, the Jews [were blamed]. [They said:] 'We have a plague? [It's the fault of] the Jews. There is a recession? [It's the fault of] the Jews.' This is what they did with them, no matter how long they stayed in Europe. No matter how much they tried to be European, they were still the 'other.'
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"[The Europeans] were antisemitic. But historians tell us, and we know, the Semites are the Jews and who else? The Arabs, the Semites are the Jews and the Arabs. The same way they held bad feelings towards the Jews, they held them towards the Arabs as well. For them there is no difference between an Arab and a Muslim from another land."
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"In Fact, Most Jews Today Are Secularists, So Even In Philosophy They Are Just Like They Are – But The Palestinians? No, These Guys Are Backwards"
"So the Jews could never escape their origin. No matter how European they became, they still were in origin, in culture, in background... They remained Jewish to them.
"They were always the 'other.' Israeli psychologists wrote about Zionism. The Zionists were very clever. When they started petitioning Europe for the State of Israel, one of the tactics that they used, is that they tried to convince the Europeans – and they were successful in doing this... [They said:] 'We are one of you, and the Semites that you dislike are the Palestinians.' Right, the Semites are two peoples: the Jews and the Arabs. So what they did, they said: 'The Semites are two peoples, two groups. In reality, the group that you dislike – that is the Semites, those are the Arabs.' That is Palestine. But the Jews... [They said:] 'The Semites that you should like, that is – we are the Jews. You should like us, we are like you. We believe in democracy. We are Western, just like you are.' In fact, most Jews today are secularists. So even in philosophy they are just like they are. But the Palestinians? No, these guys are backwards. These guys still believe in monotheism. They still believe in the Prophet Muhammad. The Israeli psychologists point out that one of the amazing things that the Zionists did is that they convinced Europe that they were one of them, and they convinced Europe that the real Semites are the Arabs. [They said:] 'These are the ones you should be against.'"
