The Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) has long established itself as one of America’s most virulent wellsprings of Islamist activism. Originally founded in 1981 by Muslim Students Association members from the surrounding universities -- including the Al Qaeda operative Abdulrahman Alamoudi, who 20 years later would plead guilty to conspiring to assassinate the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and receive a 23-year prison sentence -- and formerly affiliated with entities established by the Muslim Brotherhood, the ISB has frequently hosted fundamentalist imams preaching hateful doctrines.
Now, with tomorrow’s Ramadan fundraiser, the ISB reaffirms its position as the vanguard of Islamist hate in America. The featured guest will be Yasir Qadhi, a Salafi imam with a long record of preaching hateful views about Jews, gays, Christians, liberals, adulterers, Shia Muslims, and non-Muslims. Due to his extreme ideas, the United Kingdom’s Charity Commission is currently investigating a charity for hosting him.
Qadhi’s anti-Semitic views first came to the notice of observers in 2001 when he told an audience of Muslims:
“Hitler never intended to mass-destroy the Jews. There are a number of books out on this written by Christians, you should read them. The Hoax of the Holocaust, I advise you to read this book and write this down, The Hoax of the Holocaust, a very good book. All of this is false propaganda and I know it sounds so far-fetched, but read it. The evidences [sic] are very strong. And they’re talking about newspaper articles, clippings, everything and look up yourself what Hitler really wanted to do. We’re not defending Hitler, by the way, but the Jews, the way that they portray him, also is not correct.”
Qadhi is comfortable with arguing for the murder of homosexuals.
At the 66:26 mark in this sermon, he proclaims:
”...this is a part of our religion to stone the adulterer and to chop the head off of the sorcerer and so many other things, and to kill, by the way, the homosexual – this is also our religion. The fiqh rulings say that the homosexual be killed, OK? ... This is all a part of our religion. This doesn’t mean we go and do this in America... but I’m saying if we had an Islamic state we would do this.”
Qadhi serves as the Dean of Academic Affairs at Al Maghrib, a Salafi religious training organization with its own connections to Islamist violence and apologists of extremism. One former Al Maghrib student was Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the infamous “underwear bomber.” Qadhi’s colleagues at Al Maghrib include Muhammad Alshareef and Abdullah Hakim Quick, who have respectively described Jews as “cursed” and “filth.” Quick also defends executing homosexuals, while Alshareef insists on stoning adulterers.
Boston’s politicians and faith leaders have often attended the ISB’s events. Let’s hope that this time, they think twice about legitimizing this extremist institution and its hateful speakers.
