What is Going On at Muslim American Mosques and Events?

Have you heard about some Christian leaders across the United States calling for the destruction of Israel, the killing of Jews, and expressing support for Middle Eastern terrorist organizations?  Have you heard about some Jewish leaders across the United States denigrating the United States and Christians, with one calling for the killing of Christians?  That’s OK, I haven’t either.

But what I have heard of is numerous Muslim American leaders across the United States engaged in all of those things with the United States, Christians, and especially Jews, the focus of that engagement.

I have just completed a report titled “The Ongoing Concerns About Muslim American Mosques and Events.”[1]  I would like to thank the transcribers and translators at the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) for their years of monitoring and transcribing Friday Sermons and events in the Muslim American community. MEMRI was the main source of the information in this report. I would also like to thank Dr. Andrew Bostom for his monitoring of mosques in Rhode Island and transcribing events in those mosques. He was the source of the information about Rhode Island mosques.

The word “ongoing” might come as a surprise to many who have not been aware of the nature of the rhetoric that has been occurring for years at some Muslim American mosques and events; that rhetoric has created these concerns.

As I mention in my report, since 2006 there have been a number of articles written and a mosque study done expressing concerns about comments by various Muslim American leaders and what has been taking place in mosques across the United States.

My report covers 153 Muslim American events in 28 States and Washington DC; 97 of these events were Friday Sermons (Khutbahs). The events are arranged by State, with Washington DC at the end.  The first event in this report took place on October 10, 2023, in the State of New York.  The last event in this report took place on February 15, 2025, in the State of Texas.

I found the following themes occurring in the rhetoric across these 153 Muslim American events:

1. Hostility toward Israel and calls for its destruction;
2. Hostility toward Jews and Christians and calls for their death;
3. Great antipathy toward the United States;
4. The lauding of designated foreign terrorist organizations and individual terrorists;
5. Praise for the October 7, 2023, attack on Israeli civilians and the subsequent fighting by Hamas.

Here are some examples:

Oh Jews, you unjust, criminal, corrupt oppressors – stop! You will all most definitely be killed. The Jews, the aggressors, the evil… By Allah, all of them will be killed by Muslims. They all will be executed by Muslims. They will all be killed, this is a divine promise that will inevitably be fulfilled. This is a promise from Allah and it is going to happen. They will all be killed. They will all be killed, and on that day, the believers will rejoice in Allah’s victory.

October 13, 2023 – Friday Sermon by Imam Alhajie Jallow at the Madinah Community Center in Madison, Wisconsin.

Oh Allah, annihilate the Jews and the Chris… Oh Allah, annihilate the Jews and their helpers, for they are no match for You. Oh Allah, count them, kill them one by one, and do not spare a single one of them, oh Lord of Mankind….

June 21, 2024 – Friday Sermon by Mohamad El-Saleh at the Islamic Center of Lafayette, in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Do you know how many people nowadays look at somebody like [Yahya] Sinwar ^[[2]] and they say that man is a legend. The man is a hero, the man is brave – he not only talked the talk, but walked the walk. 

November 1, 2024 – Friday Sermon by Imam Yassir Fazaga at the Memphis Islamic Center, Memphis, Tennessee.

We are lucky to be alive in the era of Imam Khomeini, where we witness these kinds of victories. Brothers and sisters, the operation Al-Aqsa Storm,^[[3]] that day when it took place was definitely what we call a “one of the days of God”…it was the help of God that made that social miracle come true, and we were able to witness this, by the grace of Allah. So first of all, we thank Allah for being here. We also thank all of those who resisted and made this a possibility, and we cannot forget those who made this a possibility with their blood, sweat, and tears, like the martyr Qassem Soleimani.^[[4]]

October 14, 2023 – Imam Usama Abdulghani spoke at a rally supporting the terrorist group Hamas at the Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn, Michigan.

My report shows that there has been no effort to hide either the rhetoric expressing hostility to Israel, the United States, Jews, and Christians, or the expression of support for individual terrorists and terrorist organizations and the violence done by those organizations. Such rhetoric and support appear to be mainstream among many Muslim Americans.

The lack of response by Christian and Jewish leaders, and secular American leaders is disturbing. Would Jewish leaders be silent if Christian leaders were teaching what some Muslim American leaders teach about Jews? Would Christian leaders be silent if Jewish leaders were teaching what some Muslim American leaders teach about Christians? Would secular leaders remain quiet if some Christian and Jewish leaders were using the anti-American, pro-terrorist rhetoric found in some of the Muslim American events in my report? Would anyone remain silent if there were some Christian and Jewish leaders calling for the killing of Muslims? The answer is, as we already know, a resounding “No.”

Unless there is a non-Muslim “push back” to this hostile rhetoric and public support for terrorists and terrorist organizations, that rhetoric and support can only be expected to grow as births, converts, and immigrants increase the number of Muslims in the United States.  How long before this budding hostile rhetoric and support for terrorists reaches full bloom, and what then will be its impact on American society and security?

Just because you ignore Islam, doesn’t mean Islam will ignore you.

Dr. Stephen M. Kirby is the author of six books and numerous articles about Islam. His latest book is Islamic Doctrine versus the U.S. Constitution: The Dilemma for Muslim Public Officials.

[1]           This report is available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1601VY3s9I6QQ18v91ycGU9BapPjbpoXp/view.

[2]           Yahya Sinwar was the leader of Hamas and one of the chief architects of Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israeli civilians. Sinwar was killed by the Israeli military on October 16, 2024.

[3]           “Al-Aqsa Storm” is the Muslim name for Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israeli civilians.

[4]           Qassem Soleimani was an Iranian Major General who was the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF). In October 2007, the United States Treasury Department designated the IRGC-QF as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) and designated then IRGC-QF Commander Qassim Soleimani as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. The United States State Department designated the IRGC as a whole as an FTO in April 2019. Soleimani was killed at Baghdad’s international airport on January 3, 2020, by a U.S. drone strike.