Only 2-days after Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s vehicular jihad carnage in New Orleans, New Year’s day, killing 14, and injuring at least 30, the Arabic supplication at the end of last Friday’s 1/3/25 khutbah (see Qur’an 62:9) or “sermon,” at the Islamic Center of Rhode Island (ICRI) in Providence, included this statement (key video extracts, and full sermon [here; here]; also linked below):
“O Allah, FIGHT the disbelievers and the polytheists who fight against Your saints, and hinder You from Your path, and defame Your messengers.”
There are multiple such exhortations to Muslims in the 9th sura or chapter of the Qur’an, which is essentially devoted to timeless jihad war proclamations, those tailored to specific non-Muslim faith groups (Q 9:5; Q 9:29), or more general declarations (Q 9:36; Q 9:41; Q 9:111). Jabbar’s own Qur’an on his Houston residence desk was propped open to Qur’an 9:111 (see its authoritative modern interpretation here), a jihad “martyrdom” verse about “killing and being killed in the cause of Allah.”
At no point during the full ICRI sermon was Jabbar’s mass murderous attack, a mere two days earlier, even acknowledged, let alone condemned. Moreover, consistent with the baleful closing supplication in Arabic, the body of the “sermon,” in English, was a toxic amalgam of Islamic supremacism—touting the global Muslim umma as a single, united entity (Q 21:92; Q 3:110), in opposition to all nationalisms (even Arab Egyptian Muslim and Saudi Muslim nationalism!)—and contempt for non-Muslims, citing, Qur’an 48:29, which calls upon Muslims to be “severe against disbelievers and merciful among themselves.”
Simply examining social media (chiefly Facebook, but other open sources as well) confirms (see here; here; here; here) the rampant Anti-Americanism, Islamic supremacism, and non-Muslim derogation, or hatred—the latter, especially of ”Zionists”/Jews, being promulgated in my own Rhode Island community. For example, Mufti Ikram ul-Haq, is the most prominent cleric at Rhode Island’s largest mosque, Masjid al-Islam, in North Smithfield. Less than 2-weeks after Hamas unilaterally broke a ceasefire, and in a coordinated jihad terror attack slaughtered (including raping, and mutilating) some 1200 overwhelmingly (70-90%) non-combatant Israelis, and took hundred of others hostage, the good Mufti ul-Haq ignored these events, and posted this libelous diatribe on Facebook:
“May Allah crush the hands of oppressors, killers and murderers who have killed thousands of children, women and men in Gaza. How sad and pathetic is the state of hypocrisy of world leaders who are unwilling/incabale [sic] to exert their power to stop the massacre and genocide unfolding for the last 10 days. Human blood is very sacred in the sight of Allah and He is certainly watching all the actions. ‘Do not ever think that Allah is unaware of what the oppressors are doing’.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, ul-Haq, who trained at the Darul Uloom, Karachi, Pakistan, proudly identifies as one of his chief mentors in Islamic Fiqh (jurisprudence) at that institution, the jihadist ideologue, and “jurist,” Taqi Usmani. Mr. Usmani, sat for 20 years as a Sharia judge in Pakistan’s Supreme Court (His father was the Grand Mufti of Pakistan). Usmani has served on the Islamic Fiqh Council of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (now “Cooperation”)—the major international body of Islamic nations in the world, and as an adviser to several global Sharia-based Islamic financial institutions. Thus, he is a leading contemporary figure in the world of mainstream Islamic jurisprudence, who was named the World’s Most Influential Muslim, in 2020. Mr. Usmani is also a regular visitor to Britain. He was interviewed by the Times of London, which published extracts from Usmani’s writings on jihad, Saturday, September 8, 2007. The concluding chapter of Usmani’s “Islam and Modernism” was cited, which refutes the suggestion that jihad is unlawful against a non-Muslim state that freely permits the preaching of Islam (That, not surprisingly, was of some concern to The Times!). For Mr Usmani, “the question is whether aggressive battle is by itself commendable or not.” “If it is, why should the Muslims stop simply because territorial expansion in these days is regarded as bad? And if it is not commendable, but deplorable, why did Islam not stop it in the past?” He answers his own question as follows: “Even in those days . . . aggressive jihads were waged . . . because it was truly commendable for establishing the grandeur of the religion of Allah.” Usmani argues that Muslims should live peacefully in countries such as Britain, where they have the freedom to practice Islam, but only until they gain enough power to engage in battle.
A unique, seminal study reported in 2011 (which I wrote about at length, then, concurrent with its release) revealed that 81% of a representative sample of U.S. mosques preach and teach the doctrine of jihad conquest, including by violence, and its corollary: traditional Islamic, Sharia (Islamic law)-based negative, debasing stereotypes of non-Muslims. The “mosque scene” in Rhode Island sadly mirrors disturbing trends already evident in the U.S. 14-years ago. Cowed and silenced by scurrilous charges of “Islamophobia,” Americans blithely ignore this corrosive phenomenon at our collective peril.
Key video excerpts with English subtitles.
Full original video with no subtitles.
