Wiesenthal Center Urges Homeland Security, US Attorney to Investigate Imam’s Call to Murder Jews

July 25, 2017

The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) called on Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to launch an immediate investigation of Imam Ammar Shahin (pictured), the imam of the Islamic Center of Davis in California, for inciting to murder Jews.

In a letter to Secretary Kelly, SWC Associate Dean and Global Social Action Director Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, SWC Interfaith Affairs Director, quoted from Shahin’s sermon, which said in part;

"The Prophet Muhammad said: ‘Judgment Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews… Oh Allah, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews…. Oh Allah, count them one by one and 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. Oh Allah, let us support them in words and in deeds. Oh Allah, let us support them in words and in deeds. Oh Allah, let us support them in words and in deeds.” *

Cooper and Adlerstein added, “Secretary Kelly, as you know, Imam Ammar Shahin has deployed a tried and true script that has been used by Islamist extremists to incite murder and mayhem around the world. By explicitly urging Muslims to annihilate all Jews by their own hands, Shahin has crossed the line beyond protected speech. Homeland Security knows better than anyone else that Islamist terrorism — fueled by religious fanatics — constitutes the number one threat to the safety and security of the American people. In addition, American Jews are the number one target of religious-based hate crimes in our nation.”

They concluded, “As such we believe that US authorities, led by Homeland Security, have an obligation to fully investigate and take all appropriate actions in response to this explicit call to murder Jews.”

Center officials also contacted the US Attorney’s office to launch their own investigation and is urging public officials in California and across the country to denounce Imam Ammar Shahin.

*(translation by Middle East Media Research Institute)

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).