The appearance and spread of the coronavirus has been much in the news, in the Western world, where scientists discuss questions of epidemiology and of how rapidly a vaccine might be available. We see photographs, too, of empty Chinese cities, where everyone is in lockdown at home, factories are silent, and the occasional surgical-masked Chinese policeman can be discerned riding his bike on a ghostly street with skyscrapers in the background.
The world of Islam, however, offers quite a different take on the coronavirus. As one might expect, rational science is not part of the Muslim discussion. Instead, we enter quite a different world — of conspiracies for some,, and of divine retribution for others.
In a sermon during Friday Prayers on February 7, Mohammad Abbasi, a faculty member at Rutgers University, delivered his verdict on the current epidemic in China. He told the members of the mosque that “Coronavirus Is Divine Retribution for China’s Treatment of Uyghur Muslims; It Is the Least the Chinese Should Suffer, May Allah Punish Them Further.”
The full story is here.
Mohammad Abbasi, whose Facebook page says he is an adjunct professor at Rutgers University’s Newark campus, said in a Friday, February 7, 2020 sermon at the Darul Islah Mosque in Teaneck, New Jersey that the coronavirus is divine retribution for China’s incarceration of Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps and for the fact that the Chinese eat animals while they are still alive. He said that while boycotting Chinese products is a small step, Allah has taken a bigger step against the Chinese by bringing the coronavirus upon them, and he stated that the coronavirus is “the least they should suffer.”
Abbasi added: “May Allah punish them for what they did to our Muslim brothers even more.” According to his Facebook page, Abbasi is from East Jerusalem. Rutgers University’s website lists him as an adjunct faculty member and doctoral student at the School of Public Affairs and Administration at the Newark campus. Abbasi’s sermon was posted on Darul Islah’s YouTube channel.
Previously, Abbasi spoke at the November 28-30, 2019 American Muslims for Palestine conference at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. Speakers at the conference included American-Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour (see MEMRI TV clips 6808, 6935, and 6111); Temple University professor and former CNN contributor Marc Lamont Hill, with whom CNN severed ties following his controversial comments about Israel (see MEMRI TV clip 6877); American Muslims for Palestine national policy director Osama Abu Irshaid (see MEMRI TV clips 5487 and 5558), and Hatem Bazian, of the Near Eastern Studies faculty of the University of California, Berkeley.
Here is the text of Abbasi’s February 7 sermon:
The past few months, we have been talking about another hardship, another situation – the situation of our brothers and sisters, the Uyghurs in China, who correctly, by the way, should be called the East Turkestan brothers.
[…]
Those people are in concentrations camps. And we raised our hands and said: ‘Oh Allah!’ And they raised their hands and said: ‘Oh, Allah, give us some relief.‘ Some of us went around, saying: ‘Boycott all these filthy Chinese products. Stop buying this garbage made in China.’ Sometimes it’s hard. I wanted to buy my father a toaster. I went through 15 toasters at Walmart – couldn’t find one that’s not made in China. One has no power except that which comes from Allah. I needed to buy it, I had to. But I was obligated. But then you go buy socks and there are 20 made [in] China, and there is one in Vietnam, Cambodia, Egypt, or Turkey. Buy that one, even if you have to pay double. We were saying that. And people were saying: ‘You mean to tell me that you are going to make a dent in the Chinese economy by boycotting their garbage products?’ I said: ‘I may not make a dent, but the Lord will and he did.’ Their losses from the coronavirus – that is caused by them eating bats, dogs, snakes, rats, and mice – it is all on YouTube… They eat them while they are alive, they don’t even wait for them to die. Brothers, they are sitting there, chopping meat from living animals and eating them. The coronavirus is the least they should suffer.
[…]
It is not up to us to decide whether boycotting a two-dollar item on Amazon, made in China, will work or not. Allah will make sure it works. We see an example right in front of us, brothers. China went from a predator and oppressive nation that has incarcerated three million of its inhabitants for no reason except that they say: ‘Our Lord is Allah’…
[…]
And Allah accepted their supplication. And now we see China struggling and suffering and we don’t see the end of it. Two thousand cases a day are being diagnosed. Two thousand a day. The whole world now is closing its borders on China. Now, instead of them imprisoning three million brothers, the three million brothers – through the act of Allah – are imprisoning the two billion Chinese. May Allah punish them for what they did to our Muslim brothers even more.
There are not three million Uighurs now in re-education camps in Xinjiang, but one million. There are not two billion Chinese, but 1.5 billion. But these inaccuracies in Abbasi’s sermon are not what most disturb. What disturbs the most is the unbridled glee with which Mohammed Abbasi relays the news about the increase in Chinese victims of the coronavirus. While the civilized world looks on with sympathy and horror at the reports of new cases of coronavirus and of more deaths, too, from the illness, Mohammad Abbasi knows that his audience at the New Jersey mosque, and no doubt tens or hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world, will share his joy at the deaths of so many Chinese.
It was not the ordinary Chinese, but a ruthless government in Beijing, intent on stamping out any separatist movement among the Muslim Uighurs, that assigned them – a million at any one time — to re-education camps. Abbasi doesn’t make that distinction between the Communist regime and the Chinese people. He delights in the fact that the Chinese are dying in ever-increasing numbers from the coronavirus. He’s glad that they cannot travel freely inside their country, and that foreigners who had been living in China have now fled. He likes the idea that the Chinese have had to quarantine themselves within their own country, cities, even dwellings.
In a previous post we saw that some Muslims have a different, though equally bizarre, take on the coronavirus. They don’t see it as divine retribution by Allah but, rather, as a plot by America and Israel to spread the virus in China and thereby, for America’s sake, to weaken that country economically, and for Israel to profit from the epidemic by selling the Chinese “medicines and treatments” that do not yet exist, but that those clever Israelis, as even Muslims tellingly assume, are bound to produce sooner than anyone else.
Let’s hope that Mohammed Abbasi’s expression of murderous hatred for the Chinese gets wide coverage throughout the non-Muslim world, and especially, of course, throughout China and among the Overseas Chinese. That would solidify the hostility between Muslims and Chinese, an enmity from which we, who could certainly use another 1.5 billion allies against the forces of Islam, can only profit.
Gork says
How ghoulish of the professor!
I suggest remembering those words the next time something like MERS happens. We’ll see how much aid you’ll get from China. Maybe they’ll care, and then again, maybe they’ll exploit the problem.
SKA says
Wait until the coronavirus hits the Muslim nations who are far less prepared for it than Israel and the Western nations. Will they still think it is retribution from their g-d?
gravenimage says
And the Coronavirus has just hit the Muslim world:
“Egypt confirms coronavirus case, the first in Africa”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/egypt-confirms-coronavirus-case-africa-200214190840134.html
Frank Anderson says
H.F. my sincere compliments for a conclusion. Winston Churchill said when Hitler attacked the Soviet Union (with my apology for any inaccuracy of the quote), “If Hitler attacked Hell I would at least have a favorable comment about Satan before Parliament.” That certainly did not mean he was adopting or endorsing Communism; but recognizing the threat Nazism posed to all.
Buraq says
The first Chinese Muslim to die from the Coronavirus will ruin his argument – and if lots of them die because they are together in camps ……..?? End of the validity of this clown’s argument.
Templer says
One the Koran is false I say this as a x Muslim it’s rubbish there god is false forced covershons Beastaltey sex with goats okpedophiler ok wipeing out off millions off chirtstzins ok even in Iran’s consttuson it’s says two have sex with a domestic goat is not harmthe chines are wright islam is a meal illnese chirstaintey is the truth the lord Jesus may turn this viruses on the whole Islamic word oh islam is not a race it’s a cult chines do not eat bats alive but in Islam they drink camel piss.
gravenimage says
Templer, kudos to you for leaving Islam.
ploome says
Who says diversity doesn’t enrich every aspect of our country-especially education?
Westman says
It certainly places Rutgers University in a poor light to have such an inaccurate and hate-filled, schadenfreude Muslim on its faculty. However, Rutgers can say, with all diversifying intent, “Look, we’ve got our obligatory Muslim on the faculty!”
Schadenfreude – Malicious enjoyment derived from observing someone else’s misfortune.
FYI says
MERS-CoV
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus ,a new virus, was FIRST discovered in….Saudi Arabia in 2012.
muslims are not immune from it.
You Tube
The Arabian Prophet Do you know coronavirus came from the land of mecca?
Rbla says
He has clearly not gotten the memo instructing Muslim spokesmen to leave China alone for the time being and concentrate on the weak suicidal West. However, from the stopped clock being right twice a day file, I must agree with him that it would have been better for all if we had not built up China by trashing our own manufacturing base over the last three decades.
Frank Anderson says
RBLA, I agree that non-Chinese manufacturing has been trashed in favor of China. I suggest that gives them an entirely temporary advantage. Compare the present low condition of much non-China manufacturing with that particularly of Germany and Japan immediately after WWII. They had to start fresh because their manufacturing had been crippled by war. That forced newer, more modern equipment improving their competitive opportunities against older Allied equipment that had been running before the war.
China can and should be replaced as a source for every product that is economically possible using the best available technology. That will not be cheap; nor will it be easy. But it can be done to benefit our security and economy.
We can also look at the folly of failing to use economic analysis in deciding which products to make and which to buy at pre-WWII Germany’s coal to oil where cost was ignored in favor of national independence.
PRCS says
Communism (a totalitarian political system) is completely out of step with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
As Islam (a totalitarian theocracy) subordinates man-made law (like the UDHR) to ‘Allah’s’ rule, the OIC concocted the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam–which limits those rights to that permitted by the sharia.
The Communist Chinese government–though a signatory to the UDHR and various other charters) simply will not allow religious beliefs, Islam in particular, to create mischief in the land.
As its Uighur Muslims will–if not controlled–do exactly that, the People’s Republic of China’s iBig Wigs aren’t going to permit that.
dsinc says
And Allah will not be permitted to interfere.
PRCS says
True.
James Lincoln says
So, according to the feature article:
“Mohammad Abbasi, a faculty member at Rutgers University, …told the members of the mosque that “Coronavirus Is Divine Retribution for China’s Treatment of Uyghur Muslims; It Is the Least the Chinese Should Suffer, May Allah Punish Them Further.””
So, what will be the fallout for this faculty member’s “hate speech”?
Will he be “deplatformed” from social media accounts?
Will he be censored / fired from Rutgers University?
Aren’t college professors supposed to follow factual, evidence-based logic?
Likely a resounding “NO” to the above three questions.
What if he had made similar statements regarding HIV and the gay population?
Would the leftist / Marxist / globalist / islamophiles “vapor lock” due to severe cognitive dissonance? How would this square this with the LGBTQ, etc., communities?
PRCS says
Too many in that community have–foolishly–cast their lot with those whom they’ve convinced themselves are an ‘oppressed’ minority.
That’s not true, of course in the U.S., (which seems to be the extent of their world view) and certainly isn’t the case re: the billion+ Muslims around the world.
Note, as always, that the adoring flock is just eating it up.
gravenimage says
All good questions James.
Rarely says
Professor of what exactly?
tim gallagher says
That’s exactly what I thought, Rarely. Such grotesque, primitive thinking by this vile creature. Professor of mumbo jumbo and complete BS is the only possible field of study this fuckwit could be involved in. This type of thinking seems like something from thousands of years ago, but, then again, everything about Islam seems like that.
gravenimage says
I was wondering that, myself. Rutger’s site has this to say:
Mohammad Abbasi is an Adjunct Faculty Member and Doctoral Student in the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University–Newark.
Ric says
A Rutgers professor professes the Coronavirus is the wrath of Allah. Surely, no one is in shock by this man’s odious regurgitation. After all, the so-called hallowed (hollow, shallow) halls of academia are rife with those of his pathetic like. The likes of which spew drivel that one possessing a degree of intelligence or savvy would dismiss as inanity, insanity, in this case, both. He is symptomatic of the low-brow standards occupying professorships in America and the West’s educational institutions, most of which hold more in common with psychiatric institutions.
The students of such malevolent inclinations and shallowness are no more than guinea pigs in a laboratory where the rewiring of brains is the ultimate objective. More importantly, if a student has a sense of intellectual integrity and principles, he or she, undoubtedly, will find themselves the academic wilderness. Then, bullied, preyed upon by such a professor’s legion of hate-mongering, book-burning acolytes. The final blow, dismissal, with a subsequent stain on one’s academic record.
Frank Anderson says
Ric, based on my experience, I think you are correct. I was in the last course of an undergraduate accounting equivalency, Auditing, when the professor, a good man, was teaching strictly according to the rules of the AICPA an entirely false and illegal rule of accountant confidentiality that does NOT exist under the law. If I had written the required answers to pass the course, and either of the bars which issued my licenses got hold of those answers, I could have lost my licenses to practice law. The only available option was to leave without completing the requirements. That was before Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, Tyco and Mutual Savings Life where busloads of accountants went to jail.
Brian Hoff says
Allah act in world in strange way. This virse was than bioweaon being work upon in China got free with help from Allah.
FYI says
Yes indeed Mr Hoff “allah act in world in strange way”:Did you miss the bit about MERS-CoV originally coming from…. Saudi Arabia?
So you think it was some bioweapon that “got free with help from allah”?
Even if it was some bioweapon,what sort of god would do such a maliciously wicked thing?
Why did your allah release this virus in 2012 in… the ‘holy’ land of Saudi Arabia?
Do you know that muslims do not have some special immunity from this virus and all that “praying” and wudu won’t protect any muslim?
allah must not be pleased with all that false islamic piety of the hajj.
“No calamity befalleth save by allah’s leave”
koran 64:11
James Lincoln says
Two spelling errors and eight grammatical errors – in two sentences. Perhaps some credibility issues….
So “allah” was “helping” to create this virus as a bioweapon. And this is the “god” that muslims pray to?
gravenimage says
“Brian Hoff”–really, “DefenderofIslam”–wrote:
Allah act in world in strange way. This virse was than bioweaon being work upon in China got free with help from Allah.
…………………..
Coronavirus is actually one of a type of similar diseases, including SARS and MERS, which latter largely affected Muslims since it broke out in the Middle East, This particular strain in China seems to have jumped the species barrier from bats.
I am no fan of the Communist Chinese, but there is *no* indication that the Coronavirus was
“than bioweaon”.
That this ugly Mohammedan thinks that this malady killing people is due to the will of the vicious deity “Allah” shows just how ugly Islam is. *Ugh*.
Wellington says
If a Christian professor at Rutgers had said anything remotely like this about the virus being God’s revenge on persecutors (which would include a hell of a lot of Muslims) of Christians, he would probably have been fired by now. So, again we see, a la Orwell, all religions are created equal but one religion is created more equal than others.
Shame on Rutgers hiring such a rube in the first place, but Rutgers also caved a few years ago when Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State, was due to be commencement speaker, and because of the protest by a minority of students and no help at all from the Rutgers Administration she cancelled her appearance.
Friends do their best not to let children of their friends go to Rutgers. Many, many colleges and universities across America are steeped in pathetic political correctness, mushy multiculturalism, divisive diversity nonsense and overall foolishness, but Rutgers is a Top Ten “contender” here. Scarlet Knights my butt. More like the Scared Rabbits.
gravenimage says
So true, Wellington.
James Lincoln says
+1
mgoldberg says
And all the people slaughtered, imprisoned, humiliated, and that by fiat, by theologic demands courtesy of Mohammed, for 1400 yrs- everywhere Islam went and goes. All this frog of an imam can do is curse others for what is always the muslim as victim and others needing to be punished and viciously so.
Parenthetically, in Israel, at the Kotel, the Western Wall, here was there response to the viral epidemic:
MainAll NewsInside IsraelWhy did Jews pray for the nations of the world at the Western Wall?
Why did Jews pray for the nations of the world at the Western Wall?
Rabbi Avi Berman, chief of OU Israel, explains why Jews prayed Western Wallfor the well-being of coronavirus patients around the world.
Yoni Kempinski, 16/02/20
Rabbi Avi Berman, who leads the Orthodox Union Israel explained in an interview with Arutz Sheva Sunday why his organization helped organize a special prayer gathering at the Western Wall Sunday on behalf of those suffering from the coronavirus.
“This is the place that during Sukkot we used to come to pray for all nations around the world. So we chose this place, along with Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, along with Rabbanei Hakehilot [community rabbis], along with the rabbis of Chabad from China that were standing here together with us, and pray for the speedy recovery of all those who are already sick with the coronavirus and that… we should see the medical professional come with a cure for this corona virus,” said Rabbi Berman.
“Our goal is to do what we know how to do well. Doctors know how to find cures, we know how to pray to God. We know how to talk to God and say, ‘Please, bring a speedy recovery to all those who are sick.’”
“We are used to stand here in the Kotel [Western Wall] praying for rain for Israel, praying for those in captivity…for many other needs that the Jewish people have. But we stood here in the footsteps of Abraham, who plead in front of God on behalf of Sodom and Gemorrah.”
“We pleaded to God and asked ‘Please, could you enable the doctors to find a cure as fast as possible? As fast as the coronavirus came into this world, may it leave the world just as fast.”
“Many of our products that have the OU [Orthodox Union] kashrut symbol on them come from China. We know the owners of the factories, we know the people who are standing behind the products coming out of there.”
“We have a personal relationship with the people working there.”
Hundreds joined the prayer service, including Rabbi Uri Sherki, chairman of the Brit Olam – Noahide World Center; Rabbi Avi Berman, chief of the Orthodox Union’s Israel branch; Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu, chairman of the Assocation of Community Rabbis; Chabad emissaries from China; officials from the Chinese embassy in Israel, and dozens of Chinese citizens.
The service, which spanned both mincha (the traditional Jewish afternoon prayer) and maariv (the traditional Jewish evening prayer) included a special prayer on behalf of the people of China, a prayer read in Chinese, and the blowing of a shofar.
Nearly 69,300 people have thus far been diagnosed with the coronavirus, the vast majority of them (over 68,500) in China.
One-thousand-six-hundred-and-seventy-one people have died as a result of the coronavirus according to the official count, while 9,883 people have recovered thus far.
gravenimage says
A Rutgers Professor’s Muslim View: The Coronavirus Is Allah’s Retribution
……………….
So much for the idea that it is only uneducated Muslims who say things like this.
And what about the MERS Virus, which primarily affected the Middle East, including large numbers of Muslims? What does “Allah” have to say about that?
WithPurpleAbandon says
The more “educated” they are in the Islamic sense, the more they will insist that this is Allah’s retribution at play. How much genuine education can one get from Islam ? If muslim scholars will insist on telling their audience to drink camel piss to cure all diseases or claim the earth is flat ?
The man is indeed highly educated in the strictures of Islamic doctrine. Which tells us exactly what we need to know : muslims’ preferred type of education is millions of miles removed from ours.
gravenimage says
WithPurpleAbandon, Mohammad Abbasi is supposed to be an Adjunct Faculty Member and Doctoral Student in the School of Public Affairs and Administration. Lots of room for political twaddle in this field, of course, but one would still hope that there is a need for at least *some* non-Islamic scholarship in this discipline. Maybe not, though, in universities today.
No Muzzies Here says
There is no reason why he should be collecting a huge salary at an American university. He rejects rational science. Universities should be promoting truth and reason. Instead, this university is promoting a retrograde seventh-century world view.
Frank Anderson says
N.M.H., you and I agree. We are living in an AGE where the things that make sense do not apply to many around us; and they expect us to not only allow them to defy good sense, but to make us pay for it. I have a hard time accepting this and hope that changes come soon.
gravenimage says
So true, No Muzzies Here.