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Boston imam who said “Grab onto the gun and the sword” denies “radicalizing” Muslims

Jun 14, 2015 4:02 am By Robert Spencer

AbdullahFaaruuqHe really meant “Grab the car keys and take the kids to school,” and “Grab that barbell and start working out,” doncha know.

“Boston imam denies radicalizing faithful, despite video of fiery sermons,” by Brooke Singman, FoxNews.com, June 13, 2015:

Several Boston-area terror suspects, including the man killed by police earlier this month as he allegedly sought to behead cops and two alleged associates, have frequently attended sermons given by firebrand imam whose message to the faithful doesn’t match the conciliatory tone he struck when contacted by FoxNews.com.

Imam Abdullah Faaruuq, of the Mosque for the Praising of Allah in Roxbury, Mass., has been seen on videos of his fiery sermons exhorting worshipers to commit acts of violence in the name of Islam. In videos of Faaruuq preaching, the former Northeastern University chaplain appears to skirt the line between metaphor and incitement.

“You must grab onto the rope, grab onto the typewriter, grab onto the shovel, grab onto the gun and the sword,” he railed in one video reviewed by FoxNews.com. “Don’t be afraid to step out into this world and do your job.”

It is not known if convicted or suspected terrorists including the Boston Marathon bombers, Usaamah Rahim, who was brandishing a knife when police shot him on June 2 or two men who have since been charged in the same plot heard sermons like these, but all have attended prayers with Faaruuq. The imam has been on the radar of researchers at Americans for Peace & Tolerance (APT), a conservative group devoted to exposing Islamic extremism, since 2009. Ilya Feoktistov, director of research at the organization, says he first spotted Faaruuq at a rally in support of now-convicted terrorist, Tarek Mehanna, who was convicted for providing material support to Al Qaeda and conspiring to kill Americans.

“We knew he was a prominent Imam in the Boston Muslim community,” Feoktistov told FoxNews.com. “We were concerned as to what he might be teaching.”

Usaama Rahim, 26, who reportedly was obsessed with killing anti-Islamist activist Pamela Geller, allegedly plotted with Nicholas Rovinski, 24, of Warwick, R.I., and David Wright, 25, of Everett, Mass., to help ISIS by killing U.S. citizens. Rovinski was arrested Thursday, and appeared in court Friday on charges of conspiring to provide material support to ISIS. Wright was arrested last week on a conspiracy charge and is due in court June 19.

In addition to preaching at the Mosque for the Praising of Allah, Faaruuq gave sermons at the mosque that Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev attended.

When FoxNews.com reached out to Faaruuq to ask about his teachings, including the sermon in which he mentions taking up the “gun and the sword,” the imam said he was simply advising his followers to learn to protect themselves.

“You have to do your job to maintain the peace,” he said. “We all need to pitch in to make this better, or our future will be increasingly gloomy. Get involved in the work you do to lift heavy oppression.”

Neither the Boston police nor the FBI would comment on Faaruuq. But one active member of Boston’s Muslim community, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Faaruuq’s words were not ambiguous.

“There are two types of people in Islam; radicals, and those that are peaceful,” the man said. “We never talk of killing, and never talk of taking out our ‘swords,’ even as a symbolic measure.”

The man said sermons like those given by Faaruuq are calibrated to stoke rage and promote radicalism.

“For a young mind, these statements carry weight,” he said. “That young mind now thinks it can change the world with the sword.”

Rahim reportedly comes from a devout Muslim family, but his parents did not attend Faaruuq’s mosque, according to a family attorney. The attorney did not comment on how often Rahim attended prayers at Mosque for the Praising of Allah, but told FoxNews.com the family considers the imam, who has spoken out against the police who killed Rahim, a “close friend.”

Faaruuq told FoxNews.com blame for Rahim’s death lay with the police.

“Usaamah Rahim’s death was an unfortunate incident that well could have been avoided if it were more appropriately handled by law enforcement officials,” Faaruuq said. “There could have been some intelligence for them that came out of keeping Usaamah Rahim alive, but they didn’t want to.”

Faaruuq denied that his teachings radicalized listeners and said the real blame for terrorist groups like ISIS rests with the U.S. government policies.

“ISIS was not created by Islamic teachings,” he said. “It was created by the United States’ encouragement into other people’s countries seeking weapons of mass destruction that don’t exist, and destroying their societies and leaving the bitter taste in young people’s mouths.”

Still, in addition to attracting young men who gravitated toward killing in the name of Allah, Faaruuq has also defended known terrorists to his flocks. Americans for Peace & Tolerance provided FoxNews.com with another video in which Faaruuq told his congregation it must defend MIT graduate Aafia Saddiqui, known as “Lady Al Qaeda,” who is serving 86 years in prison for attempting to kill FBI agents in Afghanistan and planning a chemical attack on New York City….

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Filed Under: American jihadis, Featured, Jihad in the U.S., mosques Tagged With: Abdullah Faaruuq, Mosque for the Praising of Allah, Northeastern University, Roxbury


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Comments

  1. Cecilia Ellis says

    Jun 14, 2015 at 5:42 am

    “Rahim reportedly comes from a devout Muslim family, but his parents did not attend Faaruuq’s mosque, according to a family attorney. The attorney did not comment on how often Rahim attended prayers at Mosque for the Praising of Allah, but told FoxNews.com the family considers the imam, who has spoken out against the police who killed Rahim, a “close friend.”

    – So close a friend that the family did not bother to attend his mosque?

    • Huck Folder says

      Jun 15, 2015 at 1:07 am

      “ISIS was not created by Islamic teachings,” he said. “It was created by the United States’ encouragement [? sic] into other people’s countries seeking weapons of mass destruction that don’t exist, and destroying their societies and leaving the bitter taste in young people’s mouths.”

      Why just go back to this idiot’s biased judgement?

      ISIS WAS created by the islamic worshipers of mo, as an act of such worship.
      Islam IS the cause.
      And islam is the creation of mo.

      • Cecilia Ellis says

        Jun 15, 2015 at 2:14 am

        Exactly!

      • Celtic says

        Jun 15, 2015 at 7:56 am

        In fact it is true that US foreign policy destroyed order by destroying secular dictatorships within the middle east – look ad Iraq and Lybia. This allowed Jihadis to come to power. However, the main cause of ISIS remains Islam itself.

  2. dwight hogg says

    Jun 14, 2015 at 5:47 am

    I wish there was a organization like yours that would reveal the Imams in Canada who are preaching their hate in their mosques

  3. Angemon says

    Jun 14, 2015 at 6:47 am

    Faaruuq denied that his teachings radicalized listeners

    Of course he’s not teaching anything radical, he’s teaching standard islam.

    “and said the real blame for terrorist groups like ISIS rests with the U.S. government policies.

    “ISIS was not created by Islamic teachings,” he said. “It was created by the United States’ encouragement into other people’s countries seeking weapons of mass destruction that don’t exist, and destroying their societies and leaving the bitter taste in young people’s mouths.””

    That’s not what the islamic state says – they insist that they’re conforming to islamic orthodoxy, they quote from islamic orthodoxy to justify their actions, and, in fact, muslims from other countries – people who have nothing to do with the US or Iraq – have joined the IS because they feel it’s the purest manifestation of islam.

  4. duh_swami says

    Jun 14, 2015 at 10:13 am

    US policies cause jihad…In China, Russia, Somalia, Kenya,
    Mali, The Philippines…everywhere that US policies can possibly reach except Japan and North Korea where US policies have caused no jihad. All the Mahoundians who live in North Korea are peaceful… ,

  5. Richie says

    Jun 14, 2015 at 11:03 am

    Radical Islam IS Islam
    There is no such thing as peaceful Islam- there are individual Muslims who may choose to ignore the violent core of their cult, but islam is all about death and suffering

  6. voegelinian says

    Jun 14, 2015 at 2:50 pm

    “The imam has been on the radar of researchers at Americans for Peace & Tolerance (APT)”

    I’ve been reading Jihad Watch for over 10 years, and Gates of Vienna off and on for nearly 10 years, and during that time off and on visiting several other sites involved in various Counter-Jihad — and I’ve never heard of APT. What does that say about the ill-organized state of the Counter-Jihad…?

    • Angemon says

      Jun 14, 2015 at 3:15 pm

      voegelinian posted:

      “What does that say about the ill-organized state of the Counter-Jihad…?”

      Nothing. It tells, however, that you need more sources and resources.

  7. Larry A. Singleton says

    Jun 14, 2015 at 3:42 pm

    There was a time when we knew what to do about sedition and treason. You can actually call it “fashionable” now. Especially in our schools and universities.

    I’m finishing up on Michelle Malkin’s Culture of Corruption. We have been utterly and totally betrayed by an utterly and totally corrupt government. We are not “represented” in any way, shape or form. They are letting our enemies come amongst us and roam freely and say whatever they want.

  8. Peter Charles says

    Jun 14, 2015 at 3:56 pm

    If this clown is not a citizen or is naturalized, shop him out, never to return.

  9. mortimer says

    Jun 14, 2015 at 7:35 pm

    Abdullah Faaruuq said, “ISIS was not created by Islamic teachings.”

    A breathtaking lie! Normative Islam, rather than an aberration.

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