Imam Mahmoud Abdel-Hady of the Maryum Islamic Center of Marriottsville, Maryland hailed the October 7 massacre of Israelis and other foreign nationals in southern Israel as a “great victory.”
Abdel-Hady also said that, based on demographic trends, Muslims will be “in control of things” in the coming years.
The video revealing the remarks from the Maryland-based Imam was posted to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) X, formerly Twitter, account on Saturday.
#ICYMI: Maryland Imam Mahmoud Abdel-Hady: The Muslims and the Oppressed Will Eventually Be in Control of Things, Considering the Birth Rate of Muslims; October 7 Was a “Great Victory,” Like the Viet Cong’s Tet Offensive #Hamas #Maryland #Gaza #terrorism pic.twitter.com/U2wPBrEFTi
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) November 4, 2023
The video was earlier posted on MEMRI’s website last month.
“When we are together with the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem) will be ours. There is no doubt about that,” Abdel-Hady said.
“This is a promise from Allah, and it is going to happen. Now, eventually, this is where we [are] going, where the world [is] going. So, eventually, we are the ones who will be in control of things, or have the final say. But we need to really realize this. Why? Because simply, we are a greater number, and the way we have children, just a few years from now, we're going to be all over.”
The Imam proceeded to expand on what he sees as the implications of a future demographic shift, stating that things will have to be done by Muslims, for Muslims. This is an outcome, he says, that is inevitable.
“October 7 was a great victory”
“What happened during the seventh of this month, it was a victory. In a frame of time, that was a great victory,” Abdel-Hady continued.
He went on to explain that it represented a moment that, like others in history, designated a shift in the way the rest of the conflict would play out.
The Imam cites the Tet Offensive in Vietnam as a turning point to buttress his point.
On Thursday, in the wake of the video’s release to the public, the Maryum Islamic Center released a press statement on its website clarifying the Imam’s remarks.
“We, at Maryum Islamic Center (MIC), condemn the violent acts against innocent civilian lives that have taken place in both Israel and Palestine,” the statement begins. It goes on to state that what Abdel-Hady meant was that “finally there is global attention to the Palestinian cause.
The lecture about Palestine was meant to explore the history of Palestine, and victory refers to the consequence of the brutal deaths of mass numbers of Palestinians. The term victory is used in the sense that it has compelled people to pay more attention to the history and current conditions faced by the Palestinian people.”
The statement goes on to address “the occupation and the decades-long slaughter of Palestinian civilians.”
It goes on to accuse MEMRI and other “radical media outlets and organizations” of Islamophobia and misrepresenting the statements of the Imam. The statement neither mentions nor condemns Hamas, the Palestinian terror organization responsible for the slaughter on October 7.