The world witnessed a horrible attack on two Mosques in New Zealand on Friday, March 15, 2019. Friday, their holy day. It was an act of hate perpetrated by a white supremacist. People around the world, of all faiths and no faith, shared their sympathy.
Following the attacks in Christchurch, Reyhana Patel,Head of External Relations for Islamic Relief Canada wrote:
There is absolutely no justification for attacks on any community or houses of worship. Now, more than ever, we must work together to challenge and stand against the hateful rhetoric which inspires acts of violence.
We must all come to agreement that there is no room for hate, anywhere. Yet, we are witnessing the spread of vicious hate that is coming from Imams all over the world. One would think that of all people, Imams would promote care for the other from their pulpits.
But that is not happening. The world remains silent. While concern and condemnation has been raised about the dark corners of the internet, the hate being shared in our countries is not on the dark internet. It is front and centre.
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Kamran Bokhari, a lecturer on countering violent extremism with the Center for Global Policy in Washington and the University of Ottawa said:
“Extremist groups are not in the business of conversation they are in the business of staking out their ideas, stoking fears and apprehensions. They need to justify their action. How? They are not going to appeal to broader society but that’s not their target audience, you think they are a hopeless cause. You want to be able to at least tell people who think like you, or somewhat sympathetic to you.”
Is that not what is happening in the mosques? Are Imams not sharing their hateful views? “Staking out their ideas, stoking fears and apprehensions”?
In Philadelphia, Imam Abdelmohsen Abouhatab at Al-Aqsa Islamic Society a North Philadelphia mosque known for its commitment to interreligious dialogue referred to Jews as the “vilest” people. In a reference to the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, which resulted in hundreds of mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites being killed at two Beirut-area refugee camps, Abouhatab said that Begin “would stand next to a pregnant woman, and would make bets whether it is a boy or a girl. He would make bets, while the woman was still alive! Then he would slit her belly open, while she was still alive, to see whether it is a boy or a girl. Just like that.” These are the views of an Imam at a mosque participating in INTERFAITH dialogue.
Following the Christchurch attacks, Mazin AbdulAdhim, a prominent Canadian Muslim scholar and Imam of Iraqi descent, affiliated with the pro-Caliphate Islamic global movement of Hizb ut-Tahrir posted the following: (archive) on his Facebook page:
The Khilafah conference is tomorrow [March 16, 2019].
Come discuss and understand why we have been carrying this call for all these years.
Come discuss and understand why nothing on this earth can or will protect us except a Khilafah [Caliphate or Islamic State] that will give Muslims a safe place to live, and will pressure foreign governments and foreign media to eliminate all anti-Islam and anti-Muslim propaganda from their politics and pop culture.
Do we expect any governments around the world – including our own cowardly treacherous governments – to go on any global solidarity marches like they did with Charlie Hebdo [Al-Qaeda’s attack in Paris on January 7, 2015]?
You won’t even find a silly little “pray for New Zealand” [shooting attacks in mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand on March 15, 2019] profile picture thing on Facebook. This is Muslim blood we are speaking about here. It is worth less than the blood of animals in the world today.
Come and understand why the Khilafah [Caliphate or Islamic State] is the solution for all the problems we face, whether it’s the disaster we face today or the disasters we will inevitably face tomorrow.
ICNA (Islamic Circle of North America) Canada shares the book “Riyad us Saliheen” (“The Gardens of the Righteous” رياض الصالحين) on its website. Here is an excerpt.
“Commentary: The Jews and Christians are the people upon whom came the Wrath of Allah. Muslims have been stopped from copying their example. But unfortunately they now take a pride in imitating them in every matter and think it necessary for worldly progress.”
The following are the supplications recited at Masjid Toronto that deal with non-Muslims:
Mostafa Hanout (July 2016):
O Allah give victory to the oppressed Muslims everywhere. O Allah give victory to the oppressed Muslims everywhere. O Allah help them in Palestine, help them in Syria, help them in Burma. Help them in any place in which they are treated unjustly, O Lord of the Worlds… O Allah don’t give the disbelievers over the believers a way [to overcome them].
Shaykh Abdool Hamid (July 8, 2016):
O Allah! Raise the standing of Islam and the Muslims and humiliate the polytheism [identified by Muslim scholars also as Christianity], the infidels and the atheists, and give victory (help) to your slaves who believe in the oneness of Allah. O Allah! Give victory to our oppressed and deprived Muslim brothers and the mujahideen (those who engage in jihad) everywhere. O Allah! Pour on them patience and steadfast their feet and give them victory over the disbelieving people and give them victory over the evildoers and give them victory over the criminals.
And then there were the words of Imam Elkaswary at the same Mosque.
Imam Mohamed Tatai Toulouse, France; shared his views on Jews. So, too, has Abu Bilal Ismail, an imam at the Grimhøj Mosque in Aarhus, Denmark. And Ammar Shahin in Davis, California offered his views on Jews, too.
We must unite against hate. All hate. Silence is collusion.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
