Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
The ZOA urges the Trump inauguration committee to cancel the plans for Dearborn, Michigan Shia Iman Husham al-Husainy to give a benediction at President Trump’s inauguration next week. Al-Husainy’s recently reported history is alarming (see reports in JNS, New York Post, Jewish Insider and MEF):
- Al-Husainy held aloft a photo of then-Hezbollah terror leader Hassan Nasrallah on stage at a 2006 pro-Hezbollah rally in Dearborn.
- During an appearance on Hannity and Colmes, Al-Huseiny answered “No” after being repeatedly asked if Hezbollah is a terror organization. Al-Huseiny also first attempted to deflect the question by saying that Hezbollah is a Lebanese organization and means “party of G-d.”
Hezbollah is in fact a U.S.-designated foreign terror organization, responsible for hundreds of American and Israeli deaths.
- Al-Huseiny is the Director of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center. At a 2015 rally organized by the Karbalaa Center, Al-Huseiny wished death upon Saudi Arabia and denounced Saudis as “agents of the Jews” whose “Zionist” planes “rain down” death upon the people of Yemen.
It would send a terrible message and place a black mark on President Trump’s new term to give an antisemite and Hezbollah apologist a prominent platform at the Trump inauguration. Americans—including unprecedented numbers of American Jews—voted for President Trump in the belief that he will once again make antisemitism unacceptable in America – and have long awaited Donald Trump’s return to the presidency on January 20th. Don’t mar that day.