ADL CEO Greenblatt
Photo: ADL
ADL condemns anti-Semitic sermons by two California imams
After two US imams give anti-Semitic sermons and urge to 'liberate the al-Aqsa ,mosque from the filth of the Jews,' the ADL accuses them of 'spewing angry and hateful invective'; ADL CEO Greenblatt calls both imams' sermons 'anti-Semitic and dangerous.'
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned on Wednesday the anti-Semitic sermons by two imams in California who, following recent violence in Jerusalem and Israel’s decision to install security measures—that have since been removed—at the Temple Mount, "spewed angry and hateful invective toward Jews," as the ADL newsletter reported.
The ADL stated that Sheikh Ammar Shahin of the Islamic Center of Davis in Northern California prayed God would “liberate the al-Aqsa mosque from the filth of the Jews” and “annihilate them down to the very last one. Do not spare any of them.”
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt (Courtesy)
Also last Friday, Mahmoud Harmoush, the imam at the Islamic Center of Riverside, spoke in his sermon about a plot set in motion between World War I and II to usurp the land of Palestine from Muslims through “killing, crime and massacres.” He went on to suggest that Jews are currently trying to extend the Israel-Palestinian conflict to “most of the Middle East, and even, as I said, Mecca and Medina.” He ended his sermon with a call for Allah to “destroy them … disperse them and rend them asunder. Turn them into booty in the hands of the Muslims.”
In response to both sermons, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said that “these statements are anti-Semitic and dangerous. We reject attempts to cast the conflict in Jerusalem as a religious war between Jews and Muslims. At this time of heightened tension, it is more important than ever for the Jewish and Muslim communities to come together to condemn the use of stereotypes and conspiracy theories, and to rebuild trust so that people of all faiths can coexist with mutual respect in the Holy Land and around the world. ”
