Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) had a controversial guest, Imam Sayed Hassan Qazwini, speak at his rally in Dearborn, Michigan, over the weekend — the same imam who once suggested that the Islamic State (ISIS) was “connected to Israel” and proclaimed that the terrorist group was “playing the role of the arm of the Zionists.”
Qazwini, who leads the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, stumped for Sanders on Saturday, praising the presidential hopeful and speaking against antisemitism, despite his own history of antisemitic remarks.
We need someone who does not promote anti-Semitism in this country, someone who does not promote Islamophobia in this country, someone who does not promote white supremacy in this country, someone like Bernie Sanders who loves all and supports all.
“But Bernie Sanders is not a politician, I attest to that, he is a man of honor, he is a man of principle, and he proved that,” Qazwini stated.
It is not the first time he has signaled support for Sanders. He praised him in 2016 as an “honorable man” but added, “even though he is a Jew.”
“But you know, we have no problem with Jewish people,” he added after the fact. “We have a problem with the Zionists, not with the Jewish people, like Bernie Sanders.”
That is far from Qazwini’s only controversial remark. He essentially connected ISIS to Israel during a sermon on November 20, 2015, asserting that the terrorist group “somehow is connected to Israel.”
“The only place that has been completely safe and never threatened by ISIS is Israel,” he said in the sermon. “What does this tell you? This speaks out. This speaks volumes.”
He continued:
ISIS somehow is connected to Israel and ISIS is playing the role of the arm of the Zionists in the Muslim world to kill more Muslims and non-Muslims so it can define the name of Islam, so people can blame Islam for its atrocities so that people will be alienated from this religion.
Qazwini is far from Sanders’ only controversial association. The Sanders campaign recently announced Phillip Agnew as a senior adviser to the campaign — someone who has touted September 11 conspiracy theories and articulated antisemitic positions.
Agnew has, for instance, peddled September 11 conspiracy theories. He once publicly suggested that the United States “killed her own citizens” on September 11, 2001 — the day 2,977 victims lost their lives on American soil.
“Tomorrow America remembers the day that she turned on herself, dismantled her constitution, and killed her own citizens in the name of money,” he wrote ahead of the ninth anniversary of the tragic day:
Tomorrow America remembers the day that she turned on herself, dismantled her constitution, and killed her own citizens in the name of money
Agnew also commemorated September 11, 2016, by posting on Instagram a political cartoon by Carlos Latuff showing two boomerangs lodged in the twin towers with the words “U.S. Interventionist Policy.” Latuff placed second in Iran’s International Holocaust Cartoon Competition in 2006. Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), both staunch Sanders supporters, have purportedly shared his work as well.
…
“#neverforget what goes round comes round,” Agnew captioned.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.