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On February 8, 2020, Imam Mundhir Abdallah, a Copenhagen-based cleric who has previously been found guilty of hate speech and given a suspended sentence of six months following a MEMRI translation of a sermon he delivered (see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 7605), was interviewed on Al-Waqiyah TV (Lebanon), which belongs to Hizb ut-Tahrir, an international pan-Islamic organization. Imam Abdallah explained to the interviewer that the Jewish community and the Israeli embassy, which he referred to as the embassy of the “entity of the Jews,” had filed a police complaint against him after Danish media sources “distorted” MEMRI translation of sermon he had delivered in which he said that a rightly-guided Islamic caliphate should wage a real war to uproot Israel and liberate Palestine (see MEMRI TV Clips No. 6013, No. 6033, No. 6689, No. 6695, and No. 7407). Claiming that MEMRI belongs to the State of Israel, he elaborated that his sermon had been about the political issue of Palestine, that it was not about Jews and antisemitism, and that Islam has no problem coexisting with non-Muslims under Islamic rule, but that the Jews’ “propaganda” had convinced the Danish media that he had been calling for the killing of Jews everywhere in the world. In addition, Imam Abdallah said that he is the first person who has been tried for violating the law in question, which he said was passed in 2016 and which he said oppresses Muslims and controls what imams can say in mosques. He added that his verdict had been unanimously upheld even after being appealed. Furthermore, Imam Abdallah said that Western governments and societies believe Islam poses a threat to their disintegrating and empty societies that are “gnawed at by individualism and selfishness” and whose moral and spiritual values have shattered. He added that this is the reason Western youth turn to homosexuality, suicide, and drugs, and he compared the Danish government’s treatment of Muslims to the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims. Imam Abdallah also referred to Danish civilization as a “civilization of AIDS.” The show host mentioned that an Australian cleric affiliated with Hizb ut-Tahrir, Ismail Al-Wahwah (see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 7893), had been banned from entering Europe because he had made statements similar to Imam Abdallah’s statements.
Imam Mundhir Abdallah: "It all began approximately three years ago, following a Friday sermon that I delivered.
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"[In the sermon, I said] that the solution is for the [Islamic] nation to rise, to regain its sovereignty, to gather its forces, and to liberate its lands by means of a real war that would be waged by the Muslim armies – the armies of the rightly-guided caliphate – and that would uproot the occupation from the land of Palestine. As a result of this... There is a Jewish center in Washington, D.C. Its name is MEMRI, for short. It is a media institute that belongs to the State of Israel. MEMRI translated the sermon to English and aired it on its channel [sic]. This was picked up by the Danish channels, and they distorted what I said. Consequently, the Israeli embassy here in Copenhagen went into action... I'm talking about the embassy of the entity, the Israeli enemy... Along with the representatives of the Jewish community, they filed a police complaint. This is when this matter started."
Interviewer: "You said that your words were distorted. Please explain what was distorted."
Imam Mundhir Abdallah: "The topic of the sermon, from beginning to end, was political. It discussed a political problem – the problem of Palestine. The premise was that Palestine is an occupied Islamic land and that the owners of this land have the right to fight for its liberation.
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"In this case, the Jews are the occupiers, but the issue is not about Jews and antisemitism, and it is not a call to kill Jews wherever they may be. The Danish media said that the sermon... Of course, this was based on Jews' propaganda... The Danish media said that the sermon was a call to kill Jews everywhere in the world because they are Jewish. This claim is false and contradicts our understanding of Islam, of the rulings of the shari'a, of the political facts, and of the historical facts, which clearly show that Muslims have no problem coexisting with non-Muslims under Islamic rule.
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"This is not a legal trial. It is a political trial par excellence. On the one hand, it was done in response to the pressure of the Jewish community and the Israeli embassy here, and on the other hand, it was meant to cover..."
Interviewer: "You mean 'Israeli embassy' in quotation marks... You mean the embassy of the Zionist entity."
Imam Mundhir Abdallah: "Yes, of course. The embassy of the entity of the Jews. This was a result of the pressure they exerted on the Danish authorities and public opinion, but also due to the interests of the Danish government, which wanted to cover up its policies that are biased in favor the entity of the Jews, which carries out massacres against Muslims day and night."
Imam Mundhir Abdallah: "I was tried on the basis of a new law that was legislated in 2016. It came into effect at the beginning of 2017. I am the first person to face trial on the basis of that law.
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"This law was legislated to oppress the Muslims and in order to control what the imams and preachers say in the mosques.
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"I was found guilty and given a six-month suspended sentence. I appealed this sentence and the appeals court convened a little more than a week ago. Even though all the discussions in the appeals court were in our favor – the lawyer spoke, the witness spoke... There was also an expert in the matters of the Islamic world, who was summoned by the prosecution. Even though all that was said was in our favor, the six judges unanimously decided to uphold the verdict.
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"These Westerns governments and the capitalist influencers in these countries, who are decision-makers, have a problem with Islam and the Muslims.
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"They believe that Islam poses a threat to their disintegrated society. From the outside, these societies seem united, but whoever looks at them from within realized that these societies have disintegrated and that they are gnawed at by individualism and selfishness. This is why their moral, human, and spiritual values have shattered. These societies were swept by waves of individualism and they experience emptiness. The youth turn to homosexuality, suicide, and drugs. The presence of Islam in such empty societies, which experience moral and cultural bankruptcy, poses a threat to their society. This is why they treat Islam with a kind of hysteria. This is especially true of the Danish government and regime."
Interviewer: "Our producer sent me some information about the institute you mentioned. It was a Zionist institute that picked up your sermon, translated it, and presented it to the media. It was founded by General Yigal Carmon twenty years ago, in 1998. The goal is to expose what the Arabs are watching, their use of anti-Semitic language, and their incitement to violence. [MEMRI also aims] to promote moderate voices. It has become one of the most important and influential research centers that monitor the Arab media. This Carmon, who served as a counter-terrorism advisor to Yitzhak Shamir and to Yitzhak Rabin, says that the institute had 50 employees at first and that they had been volunteers. There are now 75 employees who work for high salaries. The institute has branches in Jerusalem, Palestine, in Tel Aviv, in London, in Rome, in Berlin, and in Tokyo, and for a while, it even had a branch in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. The institute has Arab, Iranian, and Palestinian employees. Its budget comes from the United States.
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"I'd like to mention that [Australian scholar] Ismail Al-Wahwah was banned from entering Europe due to a statement that is perhaps similar to the one you made, or because of a hadith he quoted that says: 'You shall fight the Jews and you shall kill them.' This is a well-known hadith."
Imam Mundhir Abdallah: "Muslims also suffer from their children being taken away from them. The Danish government employs a hostile policy that is no different from China's policy toward the Uyghur Muslims. The Danish government has legislated the policy that any Muslim family that raises their children on extremism should have their children taken away from them. 'Extremism' or 'extremist upbringing' are very flexible terms in this case, and it has no limits or boundaries. The municipalities and the public employees have the authority to decide for themselves whether something falls under this law or this policy, and Muslim boys are being taken away from their families. This has happened. They are given to Danish families so that they can be brought up within the civilization of AIDS, homosexuality, drugs, and immorality. This is a war against Islam in the full sense of the word."
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