Al-Quds Day Sermon by Imam Muhammad Al Asi in Washington D.C.: The Zionist Colonialist Force Must Be Dislodged, If Necessary with Non-Peaceful Means

On Al-Quds Day 2018, American imam and Quran scholar Muhammad Al Asi gave a sermon in Washington D.C., in which he said that the Zionist lobby in the U.S. was probably stronger than the IDF, the Mossad, and the Israeli government combined and called the U.S. administration "the poodles of Zionism on Capitol Hill." Al Asi, a former imam at the Islamic Center of Washington, who was expelled in 1983 and now gives Friday sermons on the sidewalk opposite the mosque, said: "The Zionist colonialist force in the Holy Land shall be dislodged. We prefer it be dislodged peacefully, but they don't prefer it that way. They're going to force us to dislodge it with every other means barring peace." His sermon was posted on YouTube on June 21, 2018, by the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought, a pro-Iran and pro-Hizbullah Islamic research and activist center where Al Asi is a research fellow. Al Asi also appears frequently on the Iranian English-language channel Press TV. In an interview that aired on Iranian television in 2006, he said: "The events of 9/11 were planned by the American administration, to be used as a pretext and justification to fight terrorism" (see MEMRI TV Clip No. 1264 Iranian TV 9/11 Special: Western Experts Say Both 9/11 And Pearl Harbor Were Planned By The American Administration, September 10, 2006).

Muhammad Al Asi: "The Zionist lobby in this country is very strong, probably the strongest lobby in this government. AIPAC is probably stronger than what is called the Israeli Defense Force, probably stronger than Mossad, and probably stronger than the regime over there and all of its structure combined. Yet, being what it is, you see American officials and politicians going to pay their homage to this Israeli lobby in this country every year in March. In the beginning of March, they assembly here in Washington D.C. And look at these politicians, you have cycles of elections over here, and we should, in whichever way passable, have our influence in these cycles of election and make these poodles of Zionism on Capitol Hill understand that we are people.

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"The Zionist colonist, the colonial force in the Holy Land shall be dislodged. We prefer it be dislodged peacefully, but they don't prefer it that way. They're going to force us to dislodge it with every other means barring peace."