Friday Sermon At Brooklyn Islamic Center: The Media Only Allows Us To Say This Is A Conflict Between The Muslims And The Zionists – Not The Jews; We Must Properly Identify The Criminals; 'Zionism' Is A Red Herring

In a November 3, 2023 Friday sermon at the Fort Hamilton Islamic Society in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, NY that was streamed live on the center’s Facebook page, the speaker said that it is important to identify the “criminals properly.” He said that the media and society only allow Muslims to say that there is a conflict between Muslims or Palestinians and the Zionists, not the Jews. He said that Zionism is only a “red herring.” He said that Israel is fighting the Palestinians only because they were Muslims, and if they would have accepted Judaism, “like others have, only Allah knows if there would be a conflict there today.”

Imam: "It is important that we are able to identify criminals properly, because what you find the majority of people allowing us to say is that this is a conflict between Zionists and Islam or Zionists and the Palestinian people. That is interesting that the media or society allows us to say the word 'Zionists' but will never allow us to say the word 'Jewish.' And so you should ask yourselves, why I am even being allowed to say the word 'Zionists' unless this word is a red herring, a word that is actually not true or has falsehood to it and so I am allowed to say it because they know that we have still not identified the true target and the true oppressors. Zionism, they say, was created in 1945, I ask you, what about the incident of Ashab Al-Ukhdud, the people of the trench? The king at that time was Jewish, and he told his community that if they refused to accept Judaism he would kill them all. What do we call that? Was he a Zionist or was that Jewish extremism?

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"Consider with me for a moment. If they have been living in this situation for the past 75 years, and in the past 75 years, just imagine with me for a moment, they embraced Judaism and left Islam, left Christianity. Would they fight them for this piece of land? If they embraced Judaism in the last 75 years, gave up their rights and said 'this is an Israeli state, I am Jewish now,' would they fight them?

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"They are fighting them because of Islam. They are not fighting them only because they are Arab, they are fighting them because of their faith. And if they would just buckle and give up their faith and abandon their religion and abandon belief in Allah and obedience to His messenger and would roll over and would accept Judaism, like others have, only Allah knows whether there would be a conflict there today."