Earlier today we saw Sheikh Qaradawi expressing these pious sentiments:
Oh Allah, take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people. Oh Allah, do not spare a single one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one.
As it turns out, this charming fellow has friends stateside. The photo above comes courtesy Patrick Poole of Central Ohioans Against Terrorism, who explains:
Yes, that’s our local terror sheikh, Hilliard resident Salah Sultan (right) hamming it up with Qaradawi (center) and Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood leader Faisal al-Malawi (left). Sultan serves on the board for two of Qaradawi’s organizations along with al-Malawi, the International Association of Muslim Scholars and the European Council for Fatwa and Research. I should note that Qaradawi and Malawi are both banned from the US for their open support of HAMAS and other terrorist organizations, as well as for issuing fatwas allowing for suicide bombings against civilians. Sultan is also a member of the Fiqh Council of North America, which bills itself as the top Islamic ruling body in the US.
Now of course, there are photos and there are photos. A few times I have posted, mostly for its gag (in all senses of the word) value, an old picture of me with Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter in 1984. One time that I did I received an email accusing me of sympathy with Carter’s absurd and evil views — on the basis of this picture alone. Well, folks, I got news for you: it is possible to be photographed with someone without agreeing with all his positions. A few months ago I found myself, quite by chance, in the same room with Pat Buchanan; we were introduced, shook hands, and exchanged pleasantries, and if anyone had snapped a photo, the Grand Imperial Lizard and his lidless-eyed sharpies would be lustily accusing me of agreeing with him, or even making “plans and alliances” with him, despite the fact that I find Buchanan’s views on Israel and many other issues to be abhorrent.
So: does the fact that an Ohio imam gets his picture taken with Qaradawi mean that he agrees with the celebrated “reformist’s” Jew-hatred and thirst for genocide? Not in itself. But then there is the inconvenient fact that, as Poole notes, “Sultan appeared on Egyptian Al-Nas TV just two weeks ago (which we reported here) preaching Jew hatred and predicting death and destruction for America.” And Poole has much, much more on Sultan at his site.
I am concerned not only about Salah Sultan, but about those in his mosque, whom he is teaching and forming in the ways of Islam. Is anyone paying attention to them? Does anyone care at all about Salah Sultan and his pious flock — enough to watch them as closely as is warranted?