A chorus of evangelical leaders, Jewish groups and national security experts are calling for the arrest of an imam for inciting violence against Jews during a July 21 sermon he delivered at his mosque in northern California.
In a sermon last Friday, the Egyptian-born imam Ammar Shahin of the Islamic Center of Davis, or ICD, cited an anti-Semitic hadith, prayed for annihilation of the Jews, then called for liberating al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem "from their filth."
A pro-Israel, evangelical Christian leader issued a statement Wednesday calling upon the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to immediately shut down the ICD and arrest its imam, Ammar Shahin, after a video of a sermon given by Shahin surfaced on YouTube.
In the video, initially presented by Middle East Media Research Institute, Shahin is seen praying for death to Jews everywhere:
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Laurie Cardoza-Moore, an evangelical Christian who is president of the pro-Israel group Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, said Shahin is "a ticking time-bomb that should not be permitted to hide behind a veil of so-called religious freedom to promote genocide against Jews."
Cardoza-Moore said Shahin practices a form of "Islamist-fascism" that constitutes a threat to the United States and its constitutional freedoms.
"It is only a matter of time before this man and his followers turn words into action. They must be stopped before innocent blood is spilled," she said.
Shahin's radical associations would indicate he is not merely speaking empty words.
According to Cardoza-Moore's research, Shahin is a Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer with a close affiliation to the North American Islamic Trust, which the U.S. Justice Department listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorist financing operation in the U.S., but he is now openly calling for Muslims to kill Jews anywhere they find them.
"I am calling upon the Department of Homeland Security to immediately arrest this man and launch a full and thorough investigation to determine if ICD is a front for jihad against America," Cardoza-Moore said.
Shahin cited a famous hadith in the sermon that says Muslims will fight the Jews on Judgment Day.
"Allah does not change the situation of people, until they change their own situation" he said. "The Prophet Muhammad said, 'Judgment Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews.'"
He prayed to Allah to “liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews” and to “annihilate them down to the very last one, do not spare any of them. … Oh Allah, make this happen by our hands. Let us play a part in this."
Philip Haney, a former longtime DHS immigration officer and author of the book "See Something, Say Nothing," said this is the perfect time for the Muslim community in Davis, in California, and across America "to show all of us just how much of a religion of peace Islam really is."
He said they should not only censure the imam publicly, but remove him from his position, bar him from serving in any other mosque, and issue a formal refutation of the "Annihilation Hadith" cited by Shahin.
"Anything less will be seen for what it is; approval of hate speech, incitement to murder, and Islamic violence against the Jewish people," Haney said.
If any U.S. pastor at any major Christian denomination uttered such inciting remarks in a Sunday sermon, he would immediately be forced to resign and banned for life from the pulpit. But don't expect anything nearly that harsh of a rebuke from the Islamic community or the inter-faith Christians and Jews. From them, you will get only apologies for the Islamic Imam, Mr. Shahin, said Haney.
"Despite what his apologists and supporters say, such as Hatem Bazian at U.C. Berkeley, this is a very well-known Hadith that has been used as a hammer against the Jewish people for hundreds of years," said Haney.
He said the Trump administration should invoke deportation proceedings against Shahin immediately.
"Individuals who come to America, then incite violence against another ethnic or religious group (such as the Jewish people) are violating the First Amendment (and several other legal provisions of their immigration status), and should have their status revoked and be deported," he said.
Jewish author Dr. Andrew Bostom told WND that Shahin's hate-filled rant against Jews is not at all uncommon in American mosques.
"Unfortunately, this is not a new situation here in the U.S.," Bostom said.
Fawaz Damra, the former Imam of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, was touted as a promoter of interfaith dialogue even after evidence of his participation in fundraising events for the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, was produced, along with a videotape of the imam telling a crowd of Muslim supporters in 1991 that they should aim "... a rifle at the first and last enemy of the Islamic nation, and that is the sons of monkeys and pigs, the Jews."
Former FBI counter-terrorism specialist John Guandolo turned WND's attention to another video that included a quote from the same hadith referred to by Shahin. Like Shahin, this imam, Suliman Satari, is also an Islamic scholar with a degree from Al-Azhar University in Cairo.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Center of Davis said Shahin's sermon was taken "out of context," and that he was specifically referring to the individual Jews who are contributing to the “oppression” at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and not the Jews as a whole, according to a Washington Times report.
“Imam Shahin and the ICD reject any attempt to blame all Jews for Israel’s policies just like we reject the attempts to blame all Muslims for the acts of fringe groups,” the statement said. “In reality, Jews around the world are on the front lines speaking out and protesting Israel’s repressive policies against Palestinians.
“The ICD will always stand against anti-Semitism similarly to how the Jewish community has always stood against Islamophobia in our close knit community. We have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism or any other form of bigotry,” it said. “During these emotional times, it’s important for all parties to use restrained language and maintain respect.”
But if the imam's call to kill Jews was only referring to a specific number of Jews in Israel, his followers in Davis did not take it that way.
Rabbi Shmary Brownstein of the Chabad of Davis, located less than a half mile from the Shahin's Islamic Center, told a CBS affiliate his family has started getting harassed by drivers passing by their home, which is also a house of worship. They say they’ve been on guard since the video was posted online.
“To me, it’s clear this is direct incitement,” the rabbi said.
Haney said the mosque's response was all too predictable.
"It shows you what obscene liars they can be; this Hadith is widely known, and frequently quoted, throughout the Islamic world," he said. "They never apologize for it, unless they're captured on camera or audio."
Guandolo agrees Americans shouldn't fall for this game of hide-and-seek, where imams say one thing to their congregations and then give another, opposite message, to gullible non-Muslims.
"The quote he uses is an often repeated quote from Al Azhar scholars in Islam, as well as Muslims across the globe because it is a part of authoritative Islam," Guandolo said, referring to Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, which churns out more imams for foreign consumption than perhaps any other Islamic university. "It's doctrine."
"It should be noted, Al-Azhar is the gold standard in the Islamic world for jurisprudence/Shariah," he said.
"This type of preaching is simply a part of the U.S. Islamic movement's civilization jihad," Guandolo said. "People like this are enemies of the United States and need to be crushed like all of our enemies using all legal means available."