A Jersey City imam was suspended after delivering a sermon in which he called for the death of Jews, calling on Allah to “kill them down to the very last one.”
Aymen Elkasaby, imam at the Islamic Center of Jersey City, delivered the sermon on December 8, two days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Jews “are the most cowardly of nations,” Elkasaby said, adding that “so long as the Al-Aqsa Mosque remains under the feet of the apes and pigs, this nation will remain humiliated.”
“Count them one by one, and kill them down to the very last one. Do not leave a single one on the face of the Earth,” Elkasaby added, according to a translation of his words published by the Middle East Media Research Institute, a nonprofit monitoring Middle Eastern media.
ICJC President Ahmed Shedeed was quoted by the Hudson County View as saying that the imam has been working with the organization for about six months and has been suspended without pay for at least one month because of the sermon.
Shedeed was sent a letter by Cory Booker (D-NJ) in which the senator asked him to take disciplinary action against Elkasaby. Booker also asked that the action be public so it would set an example to the congregation.
In response, Shedeed said that Elkasaby will face intensive retraining with imams, rabbis and priests.
“We condemn what he said, what he said was not right, it should be said and it should not be repeated again by anybody,” Shedeed told the Hudson County View.
“We welcome all to the mosque to hear the Imam speak about how the Quran perceives prophet Abraham, the history of the children of Israel, Moses, Jesus and Mary (of blessed memory; may God’s peace be upon them all),” Shedeed said in an emailed statement.
“With this background, the Imam whose Friday speech was quoted, could have spoken better. The Imam regrets the speech and the Islamic Center of Jersey City disavows unconditionally any insinuation that denigrates an entire people or that advocates violence against any innocent person,” he added.
Shedeed also said that the ICJC was “currently investigating this issue and other inflammatory statements” previously made by the imam.
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