Imam Omar Suleiman, founder and president of Yaqeen Institute in Dallas was invited to give an invocation on the House floor. Denunciations followed as they should have, given Suleiman's antisemitism and fierce opposition to Zionism. He defended himself against his critics in stating....
I have never attacked the Jewish community or peddled conspiracies about it. So imagine my surprise to be accused of anti-Semitism..... I held in my heart the Jews in Pittsburgh and San Diego, the Christians in Sri Lanka, and the Muslims in Christchurch
But Suleiman's reputation precedes him, like so many other Islamic antisemites who verbally deny being antisemitic but their advocacy and words send the opposite message.
Suleiman has made it a point in past to say that his parents were "displaced Palestinians due to the occupation", has proclaimed himself to be a champion "of the Palestinian cause"; called Zionists "enemies of God", references Israel's military operations as "massacres" and compared the Jewish state of Israel to Nazi Germany. Suleiman also proclaimed that "apartheid Israel, with American funding and cover, continues to terrorize with impunity." His disdain for America is apparent, yet he was invited to represent Muslims on the House floor with prayers.
The Palestinian leadership's mandate is to obliterate Israel and it was their aim from the day of Israel's birth, yet Suleiman insists that he is not antisemitic in his declaration about being champion of the Palestinian cause.
Aiming to obliterate Israel is not the same as criticism of Israeli policies. To spell it out: to criticize Israel's policies is not anti-semitic but to support those whose aim is to obliterate the Jewish state of Israel is.
Suleiman prayed on the House floor deceptively....
We pray for peace, not war. Love, not hate. Benevolence, not greed. Unity, not division. And we commit ourselves to not betraying our prayers with actions that contradict them.
To be consistent with his words, Suleiman's advocacy then should be for his coreligionists to recognize Israel's right to exist, remove the documented aim to obliterate Israel from the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Fatah and PLO Charters and to end "pay for slay". And while he is at it, he should also preach to his coreligionists to end the 1400 year global jihad and its supremacist doctrine and entitlements; but of course this will not happen. Suleiman's prayers were words of deceit.
"Anti-Zionist imam hits back at critics of his invitation to House", by Larry Jones, Avondale Advocate, May 18, 2019:
The Texas imam who gave an invocation on the House floor responded to those who criticized his invitation over social posts in which he demonized Israel, likening the country to Nazi-era Germany.
Omar Suleiman is the founder and president of the Dallas-based Yaqeen Institute, an organization that describes itself as a resource about Islam. His May 9 invocation referred to recent attacks on houses of worship, including synagogues.
"When I said this prayer on the U.S. House floor on Thursday, I held in my heart the Jews in Pittsburgh and San Diego, the Christians in Sri Lanka, and the Muslims in Christchurch I had the opportunity of burying and praying upon," Suleiman said in an on Sunday.
He wrote that since giving the invocation, "I have been attacked online and threatened with violence. This hate is similar to the hate that led to the other massacres above.
"I have never attacked the Jewish community or peddled conspiracies about it. So imagine my surprise to be accused of anti-Semitism" in the wake of his invocation, he wrote.
"I have spent my life fighting bigotry whether targeted at my Jewish brethren or at my own community, or at anyone else. Not once have I been involved in a controversy in my home town of New Orleans or Dallas involving the Jewish community or any other community that felt targeted by anything I've said or done."
Suleiman, who said his parents were "displaced Palestinians due to the occupation" and activists, said he has championed the Palestinian cause, but has not let it descend into anti-Semitism in public or private.
Two years ago, however, the German-Israeli researcher Petra Marquardt-Bigman a lengthy record of incendiary social media statements about Israel by Suleiman that was posted on the Algemeiner Jewish news site. On multiple occasions, according to the research, Suleiman has for a third Palestinian intifada, or uprising, Israeli troops to Nazis, and has for the end of Zionism, Zionists "the enemies of God." He is a backer of the boycott Israel movement.....