During his Friday December 20, 2024 sermon at the Muslim American Society (MAS) center in the Bronx, Abdelwahab Abdelghany warned congregants to be vigilant about dealing with law enforcement and the FBI in particular. He gave the example of a George Mason University student who was recently arrested for plans to carry out a mass casualty attack against the Israeli consulate in New York. He said: "Stop targeting our mosques, our mosques are not places where we preach harm, but rather, we preach peace." Abdelghany added that the Muslims are "the most peaceful nation to ever be sowed on these lands, but we also must know our rights."
In his sermon, Abdelghany suggested that an FBI informant approached the student, "putting ideas [in his head]." However, according to news reports of the arrest, it was the student, Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, an Egyptian student, who attempted to recruit the FBI operative to participate in the attack on the Israeli consulate.
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Abdelwahab Abdelghany: "I was just reading an article that they, the FBI, just recently arrested a student at a university level for plans to orchestrate a mass casualty event at a consulate here in New York. And if you read the article, basically, they had an informant that went to them basically and told them about all these tools and gave them all the direction and gave them all the possibilities that can be taken to basically try to build evidence so that... initially, initially actually putting ideas.
"And then they wonder why the Muslim community doesn't have great relationships with law enforcement agencies. Stop targeting our mosques, our mosques are not places where we preach harm, but rather, we preach peace.
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"Wallahi, the traps that they build, brothers and sisters, to catch our community off guard and we don't need to be caught off guard. Because we are the most peaceful nation to ever be sowed on these lands, but we also must know our rights. And we have to be a little more vigilant with it. And we have to not only be more protective for ourselves, but for our entire community."