New Jersey imam Mohammad Abbasi said that the reason the Israelites are mentioned so many times in the Quran, despite there being only a handful of Jews in the Arabian Peninsula at the time of the Prophet Muhammad was the extent of corruption, mischief, and tumult they would cause in the world according to the prophecy. He made these remarks in a Friday sermon at the Islamic Center of Union City, New Jersey, which was posted on ICUC NJ on YouTube on June 25, 2021. Abbasi added that according to the prophecy in the Quran, the Jews had the upper hand twice over the Muslims, the second time being in the 1940s and 1930s, when they came from Poland, America, Russia, and "all over" and established their "colonial project called Israel." However, he said, according to the prophecy, the Muslims will be victorious, and they will "erase this filth called Israel." According to Abbasi's social media accounts he is currently a CUNY faculty member, in the past he was a faculty member at Rutgers University.
In February, 2020, Abbasi said in a Friday sermon that the coronavirus was divine retribution against China for its treatment of the Uyghur Muslims, see MEMRI TV clip no 7803 for more details. Previously, Abbasi spoke at the November 28-30, 2019 American Muslims for Palestine conference at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. Speakers at the conference included American-Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour (see MEMRI TV clips 6808, 6935, and 6111); Temple University professor and former CNN contributor Marc Lamont Hill, with whom CNN severed ties following his controversial comments about Israel (see MEMRI TV clip 6877); American Muslims for Palestine national policy director Osama Abu Irshaid (see MEMRI TV clips 5487, 5558, and 8580), and Hatem Bazian, of the Near Eastern Studies faculty of the University of California, Berkeley.
To view the clip of Imam Mohammad Abbasi on MEMRI TV, click here or below.
"Allah Said To The Israelites[:] You Are Going To Create Mischief, Tumult, Corruption In The Earth – Not In Arabia... Not In The Middle East – [But] Worldwide"
Imam Mohammad Abbasi: "This was at a time when the Jewish population in the Arabian Peninsula was a handful of people, and yet you see so much of the Quran about the Israelites. If we have any deduction [capabilities] we should be able to understand that there must be a reason for that.
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"[The Quran said:] 'To the Children of Israel, in the Book,' in their book, so it is on ours now, 'you will certainly cause corruption in the land twice.' I wish I had enough time to explain to you how many ways the word 'cause corruption'... how it emphasizes the concept of fasad and corruption that they are going to enact in this one word.
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"'You will cause corruption' – corruption, my brothers, is that you come to something that works and then you spoil it. That is what corruption is.
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"So Allah said to the Israelites: 'You will certainly cause corruption in the land.' You are going to create mischief, tumult, corruption, in the earth – not in Arabia, where they were at the time, not in the Middle East – worldwide. I am not saying that, that is what God says. This is not political talk, this is not a conversation between the Prophet and his companions, that is a promise that came to pass.
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"With The Help Of Allah, They [The Muslims] Will Erase This Filth Called Israel"
"But then it jumps 1,400 years to this time.
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"[And this is] exactly what happened, Allah says: 'Then We gave you your turn to overpower them.' We gave you a round. In other words, the same way we had one round at the time of the Prophet... It's like a wrestling match, now they get to have a round, they get to have the upper hand.
"That is what happened in the 1940s and in the 1930s before that – the turn of the last century. They came from all over. In another verse from the same chapter of the Quran, [Allah says]:
"'We shall bring you as a crowd gathered out of various nations.' Allah said, 'We will bring you groups and teams,' exactly like they did – [this is a] full vivid description – from Poland, from Russia, from America, from all over.
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"So we said that the Quran said [there would be] two rounds. So here: 'When the first of the warnings came to pass,' we finished with the first one. 'Then We gave you your turn to overpower them.' So they won this time, they established their colonial project called Israel.
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"So here is the conclusion, I don't want to leave you depressed, I want to give you the good news now.
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"With the help of Allah they [the Muslims] will erase this filth called Israel."