Omar Suleiman, founder of the Yaqeen Institute and an “instructor” at the Al Maghrib Institute, is one of the most prominent clerics within American Islam.
In July 2016, Suleiman was invited to address an “interfaith service” held for the victims of the Dallas police shootings. On national television and in newspapers across the country, Suleiman could be seen sitting just a few feet behind the 43rd and 44th first couples: George and Laura Bush, and Barack and Michelle Obama.
Suleiman is treated by the media and the political establishment as a moderate cleric. In front of a Muslim audience, however, what sort of Islam does Omar Suleiman preach?
Adultery
“Sisters ... you know what happens with a really jealous Dad? He kills you and he kills the guy. You are offending Allah ... whenever you make yourself promiscuous or you open yourself up to a relationship.”
“I remember back in one of the conferences ... it was the MAYA conference. They used to have the Muslim Arab Youth of America. Before America used to not allow scholars to come here, they used to have serious ulema [clerics] coming from all over the world to this country, having major conferences ... I’m not even going to say their names, because they’re banned now.”
“When Allah describes homosexuality as a repugnant shameless sin and details his punishment of a people that practiced sodomy, how can anyone who believes in Allah not find it immoral?
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“If as Muslims we don’t take a clear stance on this, we will be forced to conform and watch this disease destroy our children.”
“Basically, guys and girls cannot be friends. ... You have to understand this, especially girls.”
“Islam is about solving real problems; it’s not about idealism. ... Society’s welfare always takes precedence over the individual’s welfare. What this means is, the outrage over a man having been able to be intimate with more than one woman, or more than four women, unfortunately, goes over the outrage, or it supersedes the outrage ... of a woman - the very real possibility that a woman in that situation had that option not been there - would have most likely been put in a situation of prostitution.
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“This [concubinage] was to solve a real problem. ... A women had rights in that situation that she would not have had in any other situation as a concubine.”
