In an August 9, 2019 Friday sermon, Egyptian-American Imam Shaker Elsayed of the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Fairfax County, Virginia criticized Arab regimes. He said that they not only were they weak and working with Israel to erase Palestine but were feuding over trivial matters like borders and resources, and were imitating the West and "scavenging" like an "unwanted dog at the dinner table." Dar Al-Hijrah is known for its links to some of the 9/11 terrorists, Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, and other known jihadis; at the time of 9/11, Yemeni-American sheikh and later Al-Qaeda leader Anwar Al-Awlaki was imam there.[1]
Imam Elsayed went on to say that all powers that interfere with the Arabs' aspirations for glory must be removed by all means possible, and added: "We cannot continue to have peace with repressive regimes… We have to remove the source of our misery, [which is] these governments." Citing an Arab poem according to which "the door to freedom is stained red with the blood of all the hands that have knocked on it," he underlined that Arabs need people who are willing to "take initiative" and be "ingenious" like the Palestinians in Gaza and like the Afghans in the 1980s. He concluded with a prayer asking Allah to "grant victory to His servants, the mujahideen, wherever they are." The sermon, ninth in a series of talks on "The Crisis Of Our Ummah," was posted on the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center's YouTube channel.
Imam Shaker Elsayed has been criticized and censured for making antisemitic statements and statements in support of jihad and female genital mutilation (FGM) – see MEMRI TV Clips 5989, 6043, 6057, and 6378. Following a wave of condemnation after MEMRI TV's May 2017 release of a clip of him expressing his support for FGM and noting that the practice was sometimes necessary to prevent "hypersexuality," he issued a retraction and an apology: "Regarding the statement I made on 'hypersexuality,' I admit that I should have avoided it. I hereby take it back. And I do apologize to all those who are offended by it."[2] A month later, Dar Al-Hijrah outreach director Johari Abdul-Malik resigned, citing "the lack of decisive leadership" on the issue.[3]
According to the Dar Al-Hijrah website, Imam Elsayed is Secretary-General of the Muslim American Society (MAS); the MAS was recently criticized for a pro-jihad children's event at a MAS-affiliated school in Philadelphia (see MEMRI TV Clip 7194).
To view the current clip of Imam Shaker Elsayed on MEMRI TV, click here or below.
"We Have To Remove The Source Of Our Misery, [Which Is] These Governments"
Imam Shaker Elsayed: "[The Arab regimes say:] 'We try to erase Israel from the map and put Palestine [instead].' So the word 'Palestine' may appear on the Arab maps, but, in reality, we are working with Israel to erase what we put as a word on the map. This is as miserable as it can get.
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"We are fighting over the most trivial of issues. We are fighting over borders, we are fighting over resources... Recently, two or three Middle Eastern countries – maybe four – who do not constitute real countries, right... In terms of population, education, power, GNP, economy, military – nothing... Even combined together, they have nothing to stand on. They are fighting the weakest of Arab countries for dominance, and, most probably, for more wealth. The [United Arab] Emirates and Saudi Arabia are fighting Yemen.
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"We must remove – by all means possible – all powers that stand against our yearning for education, for glory, and for a future for our children. We cannot continue to have peace with repressive regimes. They have rendered our nation to the bottom of the bottom.
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"We have to remove the source of our misery, [which is] these governments."
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"We Need People Who Are Willing To Take The Initiative And Defy Their Difficult Realities Like The Afghans Did [In The 1980s]"
"Some of these [Arab] nations have defined Islam itself as their enemy and they have started to adjust to corruption. So how do we fill those holes and replace those vacuums? We resort, as people, to imitation. So our people are looking for sports stars, electronic games, Western haircuts, Western clothing, Western style, Western this, and Western that, until the West itself says: 'These people are just scavenging under the table – keep them far.' It is like an unwanted dog under the dinner table at a family house.
"How long are we going to continue to accept eating the crumbs that aren't even available?
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"One Arab poet once said: 'The door to freedom is stained red with the blood of all the hands that have knocked on it.' Freedom has a red gate that you have to go through. You have to keep knocking on that gate until it opens widely. We need people who are willing to take the initiative and defy their difficult realities like the Afghans did [in the 1980s]. We need people to have the will like the Palestinian people in Gaza – the more the siege becomes difficult, the more ingenuity you see them coming up with."
"[May Allah] Grant Victory To His Servants, The Mujahideen, Wherever They Are"
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"We give too much power to governments and they abuse it. They abuse us. They abuse our resources. And what do we say? And we say: 'Who is going to become the president? Nasser – who else? Who is going to replace Al-Sisi? We don't have anyone to match. Who is going to replace Yasser Arafat? Who is going to replace Saddam?' Time and again, Allah is showing us that those people definitely are disposable and useless. In many, if not all, cases, they are harmful to your interests, but we continue the suckling of our own blood being sucked out of us.
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"[May Allah] grant victory to His servants, the mujahideen, wherever they are."
