Antisemitic Islamic Preaching in the Inland NW

On August 27th an Inland Empire for Israel board member spoke to the Pullman City Council about antisemitic statements made by a Pullman Imam at the Pullman Islamic Center during his sermon on August 2.

You can watch highlight's of the Imam's sermon here:

https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/bf6dVjRQ1a. 

This type of hateful rhetoric is not limited to this Imam in Pullman but is a dangerous part of antisemitic sermons by radical Imams across the country as documented by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) here: https://www.memri.org/subjects/sermons-by-imams-in-the-west.  

Our Comments to the Pullman City Council:

"My name is Juliet Barenti and I am a founding board member of the Inland Empire for Israel an organization of Christians and Jews who support Israel and fight against terrorism and antisemitism here in the Inland Empire.

We have members all over Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho. We sent all of you, including the mayor, a letter last week making you aware of our concerns about antisemitic statements made by Pullman Islamic Association imam Raed Alsawaier in his sermon on Friday, August 2.

His comments, in Arabic, called for the annihilation of Zionists (a clear euphemism for Jews, given the context of his comments) and claimed that Israel kills Muslims anywhere they can, which is absurd on its face, as approximately two million Muslims live as citizens with equal rights in the State of Israel. Just the other day Israel rescued a Muslim Israeli being held captive by Hamas. We even sent you a link to his speech with English translation.

We were all very disappointed to not get any response from anyone of you at all. We believe that one of the best ways to fight antisemitism is to expose it to the light of day and speak out against it. To that end, we asked that you publicly condemn this hateful speech and make clear that this type of hatred is unwelcome in your city. When you refuse to call out only hatred directed at Jews - you encourage it to fester and grow, as we have seen across the country. Ignoring our pleas will not make the hatred go away, and it will not make us go away.

We ask that you make it clear to all of your citizens, students and visitors -that hatred against Jews will not be tolerated in your city, just as you don’t tolerate hatred against any other group."