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Michigan imam Sheikh Mohammad Ali Elahi said in a Friday, August 4, 2023 sermon at the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, Michigan that it is unusual that even opponents of the death penalty, such as U.S. President Joe Biden, have remained silent about the death sentence recently given to Tree of Life Synagogue shooter Robert Bowers.
Elahi also addressed a letter written by nine members of Congress to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines warning against the Iranian regime's influence through Islamic centers and leaders in the United States. He said that these members of Congress are expressing their "Sheikh Elahi-phobia" by singling him out for his position as an Islamic teacher in the Iranian Navy during the 1980s, meetings with Iranian presidents, and the Hizbullah-linked Sheikh Muhammad Fadlallah. Elahi added that he might be given the "maximum" penalty and be killed if Donald Trump becomes president again, and said that he is willing to accept this sentence.
The letter by Members of Congress referenced by Elahi highlighted four Shi'ite Islamic centers with connections to the Iranian regime: the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, Michigan; the Islamic Education Center of Houston, Texas (see MEMRI TV Clips Nos. 6475, 7081, 8132, and 9719); the Manassas Mosque in Virginia (see MEMRI TV Clip No. 6487), and the Islamic Education Center in Potomac, Maryland.
Sheikh Mohammad Ali Elahi: "When Salwan Momika [burned the Quran], this guy thought that now, with burning the Quran he can get [Swedish] citizenship.
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"He called it the freedom of expression, and I called it the other day, in front of the Islamic Center [of America]: It is the freedom of hypocrisy!
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"Yesterday, when this Robert Bowers was condemned to a death sentence... This is the guy, who a few years ago attacked the Tree of Life Synagogue and killed eleven Jews over there. We all condemned this at the time, if you remember. But now everybody said: 'Yes, the death sentence is something deserved for Robert. He should be killed.' But of course, even people who are against the death sentence, like President Biden... You know President Biden is very much against the death sentence. But in this case, we did not hear anything from anybody, even from those opposing capital punishment. They are silent in this situation.
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"We see Islamophobia, we see Quran-phobia, we see Shia-phobia, we even see Sheikh Elahi-phobia. That is interesting. Yesterday, I received an email [from] a newspaper asking me...
"Nine Congressmen wrote a letter to the Justice Department and also to the Director if National Intelligence of America.
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"You don't have any problems in the United States, for these nine Congressmen, Sheikh Elahi is a problem, not all of this. It looks that the Congress is a joke for these people. This kind of Congresspeople... You are joking, if you take time to write a letter of two or three pages that Sheikh Elahi is under the influence of the Iranian regime, and in 1980, he as head of an office that was teaching in the navy over there, and he met with some Iranian presidents and also with the late Sayed Fadlallah, and Sayyed Fadlallah was related to Hizbullah, and all of these things...
"It is just like a joke. The nine of them, of course, are all Republicans. None of them are from Michigan, how do you know Sheikh Elahi, I mean, don't you have any problems in your own states that I'm your problem now? Do whatever you want.
"Now, vote for your leader, for Trump. You know they are working on it, to have Trump back again. Okay, and if you want to come and punish me, the maximum penalty, Mr. Congresspeople – nine of you – is to kill me."
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