Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s campaign condemned comments by an imam who accused Israel of working alongside the Islamic State a day after he spoke at an event for the Vermont senator.
Imam Sayed Hassan al Qazwini, founder of the Islamic Institute of America based in Michigan, praised Sanders ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Michigan, but the campaign has since rebuked him for previous remarks.
“The campaign has been made aware of offensive and toxic past statements by Imam Qazwini. These statements are dangerous, hateful, and violate the principles of our movement, which is based on values of equality and dignity for all people,” Sanders’s campaign manager Faiz Shakur told the Washington Post. “Senator Sanders stands with those in Israel, Palestine, and across the region who work for peace, and unequivocally rejects antisemitic conspiracy theories that seek to blame Israel for all the region’s problems, and well as any bigoted statements against any group.”
During a sermon in November 2015, Qazwini argued Israel and ISIS have the same motivation and are working together. “I have no doubt that ISIS is motivated by an agenda run by the enemies of Islam,” he stated at Detroit’s Az-Zahraa Islamic Center.
He expressed support for Sanders in 2016, noting, “even though he is a Jew.”
“An honorable man, I truly consider him an honorable man, even though he is a Jew, but you know we have no problem with the Jewish people,” Qazwini said. “We have a problem with the Zionists, not with the Jewish people, like Bernie Sanders. He was the only one who was honest, and who did not even bow to the pro-Israeli lobby.”
He also said the “number one beneficiary of all these atrocities” was “the Zionist regime.”
ISIS has threatened Israel with violence for years.
