This is the group that the mainstream media persistently portrays as a neutral civil rights organization. It is unusual to see a representative of Hamas-linked CAIR being this open about his Islamic antisemitism — probably Walid sees that his group can do no wrong in the media, so what has he got to lose?
Walid is referring to Muhammad’s massacre of the Banu Qurayzah, a Jewish tribe of Arabia, as recorded in the sira of Ibn Ishaq. This is noteworthy because Islamic supremacists in the U.S. usually deny that this massacre happened at all. But Walid shows here that he believes it did happen and that Muhammad was “correct” to murder between 600 and 900 Jews.
“Dawud Walid, the Quran and Jews,” by Daniel E. Rogell for IPT News, June 4:
…”Who are those who incurred the wrath of Allah?” CAIR-Michigan Executive Director Dawud Walid asked in a May 25 sermon
at the Islamic Organization of North America mosque in Warren, Mich.
“They are the Jews, they are the Jews,” he answered himself in Arabic.Aside from being one of CAIR’s most visible spokesmen, Walid appears frequently in the media and has traveled abroad at least twice
on trips paid by the State Department. During a 2010 trip to Mali, for
example, he criticized treatment of Muslim Americans after 9/11, saying
they “have been subjected to increased discrimination from racial and
religious profiling by law enforcement.” And he cast the 2009 shooting
death of a Detroit imam as unjust, even though the imam refused orders
to lay down his weapon and surrender, and then opened fire first after a
police dog was sent in to subdue him.If it isn’t the Jews incurring Allah’s wrath by disobeying him, the
hands of the pro-Israel lobby are undermining American Muslims and
Palestinians alike, Walid claimed in his sermon.“One of the greatest social ills facing American today is
Islamophobia, and anti-Muslim bigotry. And if you trace the
organizations and the main advocates and activists in Islamophobia in
America, you will see that all those organizations are pro-Israeli
occupation organizations and activists,” Walid said. “You will see every
single last one. Do you know why? Because one of the leading
Islamophobes by the name of Daniel Pipes, said the political empowerment
of American Muslims is a direct threat to Israel.”The “pro-Israeli occupation lobby that is connected to the
Islamophobia network” is the reason why America experiences “more
problems, more Islamophobia, more hate crimes, more desecration of
mosques, more anti-Muslim activity” than other countries in North and
South America, Walid said.This Zionist lobby is also the biggest obstacle to Muslims
“liberating” Palestine, Jerusalem, and the al-Aqsa Mosque, the heat of
the Israel-Palestinian conflict, he said.Walid isn’t alone blaming Jews for Palestinian problems or
Islamophobia. Conspiracies about a Jewish or Zionist lobby controlling
American foreign policy, especially towards a future Palestinian state,
are frequently repeated throughout Arabic and Islamist media. Their
champions include Hamas, Iranian news outlets, and the Muslim Brotherhood.For example, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh blasted the United States as an “enemy of Islam” in 2006 in part because it is “influenced by the Zionist lobby.”
Those same groups also argue that Jews are the main culprits behind America’s supposed trend toward anti-Muslim hate, and link the ideas together.
“So this is why you see the Islamophobia network trying to gin up
negative information about Muslims and Islam. This is a direct
connection to the occupation of Palestine. It is a direct connection.
And [it is] because the strongest Israeli lobby in the world is in
America, because America is the sole patron of Israel,” Walid said.He goes on to pray for the brothers in Syria, Yemen, Palestine, and
Mali, all places with active Islamist insurgencies, as well as “the
Mujahideen in your way everywhere.”As mentioned, the rhetoric is just the latest example of extremism
from one of CAIR’s highest profile directors. Yet, in addition to
government-financed trips abroad, Walid routinely meets with key
government decision makers. In October, he met with Detroit U.S.
Attorney Barbara McQuade seeking her help monitoring a local zoning
issue.In January 2011, he joined imams from 20 local mosques in a meeting
with FBI officials to discuss their concerns over FBI surveillance and
training tactics. In 2009, he was among four dozen local faith leaders
to meet with Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary of
Intergovernmental Programs Juliette Kayyem.The May 25 sermons isn’t the first time this year that Walid’s sermons targeted Jews.
When the Quran describes a slaughter of Jews at the hands of
Muhammad’s army, it isn’t an indication of anti-Semitism, he said in a
Detroit speech in January.The Jews had it coming.
“Did Muhammad order the killing of Jews?” Walid asked in a Twitter post
promoting the video. In response, an Islamist follower wrote, “Yes he
did and I agree with it”¦Well isn’t treason a sentence to death.”Rather than oppose a hateful perspective, Walid merely corrected the
follower and reinforced the anti-Jewish sentiment. Muhammad “didn’t
order it. Sa’ad ibn Mu’aadh [one of his followers] ordered that
punishment. It was a correct one.”The reference is to the Battle of the Trench in 627 AD involving
Muhammad’s army. “Zionists” use the event to attack the prophet, Walid
stated in his speech, by arguing that the Quran and the prophet preached
a hatred of Jews.Jews there entered into an agreement to join with the prophet. But the men “committed treason, [by sitting] with the polytheists against the believers.” For this, all the men of the tribe were beheaded and the women and children were sold into slavery.
“Is this just something that is in Islam for treason? Even for the
nations that came before, even in Torat [the Torah] according to what
the Jews had at that time, committing treason during a time of war is
punishable by death. Because their own book says an eye for an eye, and a
tooth for a tooth, a life for a life, and a breach for a breach,” he
added.