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At a Muharram observance held at the Hadi Institute in Dearborn, Michigan between July 22 and July 26, 2023, a poet named Hassan Salameh recited poetry praising IRGC Qods Force commander General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2020. He said: "Hajj Qasem [Soleimani] was a hero and not a terrorist." In other passages of the poem, Salameh accused the U.S. of having created ISIS, claimed that recent Quran-burning incidents were an organized attack against Islam, and said that the fire of the followers of Imam Hussin will "overtake this world". Later in the event, the moderator said that the injustices of the world stem from U.S. imperialism and "global Zionism", and that since the earth belongs to Allah, it is the Muslims who deserve more than anybody else to live in the land of the United States. He added that the "warmongers" and "tyrants" are the ones who should leave.
The videos of the Muharram observance were posted on the Light of Guidance YouTube channel. It is noteworthy that the event featured a speech by Usama Abdulghani (see MEMRI TV Clips Nos. 9616, 9602, 8073, and 7284). In addition, it should be noted that on July 22, 2023, the Light of Guidance Facebook page shared Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's response to the Quran-burning incident in Sweden.
Hassan Salameh: "Does this weak coward burning the Quran stand alone? Or was this [Quran] burning organized by those who seek to destroy Islam, because they also know that this book is the key to human freedom?
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"They demonize Islam to make it easy to invade Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and all the other countries on the list.
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"The true fire that will burn is not the one they use to try and desecrate our holy book, it is not the fire that burned in Karbala, it is not the fires that are burning in Jenin, not the fires that are burning all across the globe, but it is the fire and the followers of [Imam] Hussein that will overtake this world, and bring upon a cool peace by the Lord of Flame and Water. We respond to your call, oh Hussein!"
Crowd: "We respond to your call, oh Hussein!"
Salameh: "We respond to your call, oh Hussein!"
Crowd: "We respond to your call, oh Hussein!"
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Salameh: "I want you to think of children who are slaughtered by U.S.-created ISIS. I do not speak these words to be divisive, this topic is not enticing, it is not [meant] to be frightening. It is to open our eyes to his cruel world. It should strike us like lightning, that the ideology and lifestyle [that] the secular world is inviting will not make anything more peaceful, more civilized, more delighting, but has turned the world into a place where even children are not safe.
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"Why do you think they seek to burn our Quran? The same ones who will kill, use, and abuse children as their obsession are trying to give us human rights lessons. Well, they can save it. Our school is Ashura, our teacher is Imam Hussein, and this time, inshallah, the result will not be the same. As it was on the sand of those heated plains, for from Muhammad, one remains.
"For from Muhammad, one remains, who will bring back a world where purity prevails, where infants do not have to fear missiles falling like hail, do not have to fear three-pronged-arrows, do not have to think about the Bidens, Neyanyahus, or Pharaohs. All hail and praise on that day, to the one who after all things perish – will stay."
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Speaker: "As the brother was reciting his poetry, it reminded me of what many people unfortunately say oftentimes, when we do our divine duties before Allah, to criticize, call out, and speak out against the injustices in the world around us, which in this day and age, so happen to stem – almost all practically – from U.S. imperialism and global Zionism. Many people immediately will just come and say: 'If you don't like it, why don't you leave? If you hate America so much, why don't you just move somewhere else?'
"One point is that the earth belongs to Allah. If anybody deserves to live anywhere on this earth in peace and in freedom, with justice, including the lands of the United States of America, it is us, believers, and it is freedom-loving people all over the world. Not the warmongers, the criminals, the tyrants, and the murderers who are calling the shots at the expense of all humankind.
"So if anybody should leave, it should be the warmongers and the tyrants, although I'm not quite sure where they would go."
"The other point is, isn't the idea of love it or leave it completely contrary to the entire concept of so-called democracy where the people, when they don't like something, they have the right, the civil right and the human right, to enact change within the systems that they live in. Is this not what democracy is all about? At least this is what they tell us. So if we don't love it, we should change it. We don't have to necessarily leave it."
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Salameh: "Hajj Qasem [Soleimani] was a terrorist, they say, so they killed him.
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"Hajj Qasem was a hero and not a terrorist. No matter how the spin doctors and media manufactured it and made us afraid to say that the flag of Abbas and the flag of the resistance are the only ones waving against the arrogant. Even non-Muslims praise the Jedi and stand against the Imperialist.
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"Tonight, in honor of Hajj Qasem, three times: We respond to your call, oh Abbas!"
Crowd: "We respond to your call, oh Abbas!"
Salameh: "We respond to your call, oh Abbas!"
Crowd: "We respond to your call, oh Abbas!"
Salameh: "We respond to your call, oh Abbas!"
Crowd: "We respond to your call, oh Abbas!"
Salameh: "We respond to your call, oh Abbas!"
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