Abdul Rahman al-Sudais is the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
He has quite a taste for virulently antisemitic sermons. Here is an example:
Are we not a Ummah that has its sources, values and historical rights? What do our Quraan and Sunnah as well as our faith affirm? What does our history of the issue recorded which vividly confirmed that the war between us and the Jews is the war of faith, identity and existence? Are we not reading the word of Allaah,
“Verily, you will find the strongest among men in enmity to the believers (Muslims) the Jews and the polytheists.” (Al-Maaidah 5:82)
And His saying,
“Never will the Jews nor the Christians will be pleased with you till you follow their religion.” (Al-Baqarah 2:120)
Read the history to know that yesterday’s Jews are evil predecessors and today’s Jews are worse successors. They an ingrate people, they altered God’s words, worshipped calf, killed Messengers and denied their Messages. They are exiled people and the worst of mankind. Allaah cursed them and cast His wrath upon them. He turned some of them to monkeys and pigs and worshippers of creatures. They are worst in position and are astray from the right path.
History of Jews is full of deception, trickery, rebellion, oppression, evil and corruption. They always seek to cause mischief on the earth and Allaah loves not the mischief-makers. They even insulted Allaah. The Quraan says,
“The Jews say: ‘Allaah’s Hand is tied up (i.e. He does not give and spend of His Bounty). Be their hands tied up and be they accursed for what they uttered.’”(Al-Maaidah 5:64)
High and Glorified is Allaah above what they uttered.
They have accused Allaah’s Messengers with great and heinous crimes. They harmed Prophet Moosa, denied Eesaa, killed Yahyaa and Zakariya and attempted to kill Prophet Muhammad. They used magic spell on him and poisoned food for him. Allaah addresses them,
“Is it that whenever there came to you a Messenger with what you yourselves desired not, you grew arrogant? Some, you disbelieved and some you killed…” (Al-Baqarah 2:87)
Fellow Muslims! Today we are facing the most severe war against the enemies of yesterday, today and tomorrow; a war against the descendants of Banu Qurayzah, Banu Nadeer, Banu Qaynuqaa.* May everlasting curse of Allaah be upon them. Can our people now understand the true colour of these accursed and erroneous people after their evil have become widespread and their aggression has become well-known?
* The Jewish tribes who used to live in Al-Madeenah with whom the Messenger of Allaah made covenants. They violated the covenant and were as a result expelled from Al-Madeenah.
With odious views like those, it is no surprise that Sudais is a supporter of the terrorist group Hamas.
When the IDF killed Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin, Sudais praised him as a “martyr” and hailed “blessed jihad”:
Fellow Muslims! The greatest political calamity from which the Muslims suffer in this region is the heinous crimes that the Zionist entity commits against the Ummah. The latest of these crimes, which shows the Zionists’ desperation in inflicting the greatest possible harm upon the Muslims, their religion and holy places and their leaders, is the cowardly but barbaric murder of the Palestinian Mujaahid, Shaykh Ahmad Yasin, may Allaah have mercy on him and accept him among the martyrs.
…
There should be no wonder in the crimes these people are committing in the land of Palestine, for their dark history is full of series of murders committed against Prophets, fighters in the cause of God and reformers, though the book that was revealed to Moosaa and which this people falsely claim to follow, is all mercy.
…
We are calling on our brethren the Mujaahideen in the land of Palestine to stand united against the Zionist enemy. They should shun all elements of discord and dissention and hold fast unto the injunctions of the Book of Allaah and the Sunnah of His Messenger. They should deny the opportunists and the self-serving individuals the chance of causing disunity among them.Our brethren in the land of heroes and Mujaahideen, you have indeed, rekindled hope in the Ummah with your blessed Jihaad. Be patient and persevering in your struggle until you achieve either of the two gracious prizes: victory or martyrdom. Our hearts are with you and our invocations are for you. The Ummah will not relent is assisting you with whatever it possesses of money and efforts, for your cause is Islaam’s and Muslims’. We shall ever be with you until the promise of Allaah comes and Allaah never fails in His promise.
Sudais has also expressed support for jihadis fighting British troops in Iraq. In November 2004 coalition forces, including the Black Watch, wrested control of Fallujah from jihadis. As the fighting raged, Sudais praised the jihadis in a sermon on Muslim unity:
Dear Muslims! We have to say all this because our Ummah is now suffering from afflictions and calamities about which there are different stances, opinions and differences, while what the Ummah seriously needs is unity and denying the chance to those who are waiting to harm the Muslims.
Dear brethren! Every Muslim who is seriously concerned about the affairs of the Ummah will be pained to see the current situation of the Muslims and what the land Iraq is undergoing of massacres from which even the houses of Allaah and places of worship are not exempted. By which right should thousands of men, women and children be wantonly killed? Under which right should houses be demolished and honours desecrated? May peace of Allaah be upon the brave, defying and glorious Falluja city. By the Grace of Allaah and then by the courage of Fallujan heroes, the vanquished forces of occupation shall be rendered paralyzed, however much they claim to bring freedom and human rights. May Allah support you O beloved brethren of Iraq. We beseech Allaah to remove your hardship and give you relief from your distress at a time that there are few supporters and that the night of the oppressing occupiers are long. These aggressors shall never escape from the record of history and their actions shall produce nothing but mutual hatred among nations and the wrath of Allaah.
This is exactly the kind of hate preaching the UK must challenge.
Unfortunately, some prefer to promote hate preachers.
Sudais is in the country right now. Here he is being formally welcomed by the Saudi ambassador to the UK, Prince Mohammed bin Nauwaf bin Abdul Aziz.
Then to the tour. On Wednesday Sudais led prayers at the al-Tawhid Mosque in Leyton. On Thursday he addressed a meeting in Banbury Town Hall. Conservative MP Tony Baldry was a fellow speaker. Yesterday he spoke at the Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham. Next Tuesday he will lead prayers at the East London Mosque.
The East London Mosque appearance is noteworthy.
Readers may recall that Sudais cropped up in a BBC Panorama broadcast in 2005. Panorama queried Muhammad Abdul Bari, then and now chairman of the East London Mosque as well as a leading figure in the Muslim Council of Britain, about Sudais’s hateful sermons. With reason: Sudais had been a high profile guest of the mosque in 2004. Bari responded with a mix of evasion and defiance:
John Ware: Sheikh Sudais is a leading Imam from the great mosque in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.
He had one voice for his Western audience – another for his followers in Saudi. Sheikh Abdur-Rahman Al-Sudais: The worst … of the enemies of Islam are those… whom he… made monkeys and pigs, the aggressive Jews and oppressive Zionists and those that follow them: the callers of the trinity and the cross worshippers… those influenced by the rottenness of their ideas, and the poison of their cultures the followers of secularism… How can we talk sweetly when the Hindus and the idol worshippers indulge in their overwhelming hatred against our brothers… in Muslim Kashmir…
John Ware: The East London mosque received $1m from the Saudis towards their new centre. The mosque’s links to Saudi go back many years.
The mosque’s Chairman Dr Bari remains to be convinced that his honoured guest Sheikh Sudais has repeatedly vilified other faiths.
John Ware: Do I take it that if you were satisfied he had said such things you would not have invited him over?
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Chairman, East London Mosque, Deputy Secretary General, Muslim Council Of Britain: Well of course if it was proved that he exactly said this thing that you mentioned then why do you invited people who would be saying like this?
John Ware: I mean, let me say what else he’s reported to have said, he said: ‘There should be no peace with the rats of the world.’ Again he refers to Jews as the scum of the human race, offspring of apes and pigs, and he has also referred to Christians as worshippers of the cross.’ You don’t see Christians in those terms?
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: I don’t see Christians in those terms.
John Ware: You don’t see Christians in those terms?
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: No.
John Ware: No. And idol worship¿ you don’t see Hindus as idol worshippers, do you ? I’m sure you don’t, do you? Do you?
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: Well… why are you bringing all this?
John Ware: You, er, I mean you do not regard Hindus as idol worshippers?
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: Well Hindu… you mean the definition? When it’s idol worshipper, different people worship God in different manners.
John Ware: Mmm.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: Once again you are entering into the theological debate and Muslims worship one monotheistic God and many other communities may have different versions of God.
John Ware: No, I understand that.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: The Trinity may be one of them.
John Ware: I understand that.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: And it all depends how you use the word and explain the word.
John Ware: Sure, but this is harsh.. you wouldn’t… I mean no, I accept all that, but this is different, isn’t it. This is very harsh language; this in effect denounces other faiths, Hindus, Christians and Jews.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: Well denouncing any faith is not acceptable in Islam, that’s not the Prophetic teaching. We need to know the source of this and this is very dangerous thing, that character assassination of Muslim scholars and leaders are getting very widespread.
John Ware: I’m not trying to assassinate his character I’m simply trying to deal with the facts. That’s all I’m trying to do.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari: No, I know, you are mentioning… you are saying facts but we have a question whether these are facts.
John Ware: The facts are easily checkable – we found a selection of the Sheikh’s sermons on a Saudi website covering mosques in the holy cities of Medina and Mecca – with English translations.
Sheikh Abdur-Rahman Al-Sudais: Monkeys and pigs and worshippers of false Gods who are the Jews and the Zionists
In fact, Panorama’s “A Question of Leadership” broadcast infuriated the Muslim Council of Britain. It called the programme a “witch-hunt against British Muslims” and wrote several letters of complaint to the BBC. The BBC defended its coverage, including the segment on Sudais:
You have expressed scepticism that Sheikh Al Sudais, who was an honoured guest at the East London Mosque where the MCB’s Deputy General Secretary is Chairman, had previously said in Mecca that Jews were “monkeys and pigs”, “rats of the world” and the “offspring of apes and pigs”; that Christians were “cross worshippers… those influenced by the rottenness of their ideas and the poison of their cultures the followers of secularism”, and that Hindus were “idol worshippers.” I can assure you that he did. His sermons are available from a Saudi website covering mosques in the holy cities of Medina and Mecca and the translation we used was verified by BBC Monitoring, a fluent Arab speaker on our production team, and a translator outside the BBC.
Four years on, apparently nothing has changed at the East London Mosque. Sudais is still welcome.
Well, why shouldn’t he be. Just two weeks ago London’s deputy mayor, Richard Barnes, praised the mosque:
Richard Barnes, Deputy Mayor of London, said, “When you look back to when this mosque was started, to what you’ve achieved today, you are all to be congratulated. I would encourage all to come here to see what the East London Mosque is doing for East London and indeed, London.”
So all’s well in East London. Super.
