Florida Friday Sermon - Imam Hasan Sabri: The Only Way to Liberate Palestine, Jerusalem, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque Is the Way of Saladin and Omar Ibn Al-Khattab

During a Friday sermon at the Islamic Center of South Florida (ICOSF) in Pompano Beach, Florida, Imam Hasan Sabri said that the establishment of Israel was a "sad comedy" carried out by the superpowers of the time "because they wanted the Muslims themselves to be humiliated." According to Imam Sabri, nothing would be achieved through the peace process and "Palestine, Al-Aqsa, and Jerusalem have one path and one way to be liberated, and that is the way of Saladin, and the way of Omar ibn Al-Khattab." The sermon, delivered on April 13, was posted on the official ICOSF YouTube channel.

Hasan Sabri: "This is the last chapter in a sad comedy – I like to call it a comedy because nobody believes it, except those who are simple-minded, and those who do not know what is going on in the world – that started more than a hundred years ago, a hundred years ago, when the superpowers were redrawing the maps of the world. They decided to create a homeland for the Jews, for the Zionists, in Palestine, and the leadership of the Muslims at that time accepted and signed to it. But why would it take a hundred years to seal this deal, which started more than a century ago? It's because they wanted the Muslims themselves to be humiliated. They wanted the Muslims themselves to accept this, because they know that the Muslim nation will never accept surrendering the Al-Aqsa Mosque, or giving up the holy land of Palestine, that Allah has blessed.

"They wanted to make all kinds of stunts, so that Muslims would reach the conclusion that we do not have any choices except to accept whatever is offered us, because there is no other hope. That is the reason for what has happened in 1948, and in 1967, 1956, 1973, and 1982, and all the wars and skirmishes, and the peace processes and deals that were signed. The only reason for it is so that this nation will finally accept the reality – that Palestine, Jerusalem, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque are not theirs. They have the right to go and visit it, like tourists. They have the right to go and pray – if they are allowed to pray and if the Al-Aqsa Mosque stays the same, because nowadays there are calls even to destroy it, and to establish the third temple for the Jews in the place of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

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"My dear brothers and sisters, Palestine, Al-Aqsa, and Jerusalem have one path and one way to be liberated, and that is the way of Saladin, and the way of Omar ibn Al-Khattab. Don't have any illusions that the enemies of Islam and Muslims are going to be nice and generous, and give them Palestine or part of it. That is not going to happen. Allah says about them: 'They do not observe any bond or treaty with a believer.' To them we do not exist, and the best among us is the one who is dead. That is how they look at us. And don't think that any of these so-called peace processes is going to generate anything. What is going to generate anything is to do what Omar ibn Al-Khattab did when he sent the companions and the army, thousand after thousand, and they sacrificed and they were martyred, in order to liberate it from the Roman Empire – the superpower at that time.

"And then when Saladin united the Muslims, and rallied them around him and defeated the Crusaders in Hittin, and entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Rajab, the month of Isra and Mi'raj, he did not go and sign any treaties, he did not start any peace processes, he did not recognize the occupation of anybody over Palestine. But he did the right thing that we are falling short of doing nowadays, and that is why we are humiliated and why the Al-Aqsa Mosque is what it is."