A religious leader in Dearborn, Michigan, compared Israel to Nazi Germany and ISIS in a sermon at the local Islamic Institute of Knowledge.
“Zionism is the ISIS of today. If there was an ISIS for the Muslims, there is also an ISIS for the Jews,” Dr. Baqir Berry, the leader of the Dearborn-area mosque, said in the sermon, according to a translation by the Middle East Research Institute (MEMRI). “This (Jewish) ISIS is a million times worse than the ISIS of the Muslims. We should know this. A million times (worse). The members of ISIS did not commit the kind of crimes perpetrated by the Zionists.”
The comments, which were made during last week’s Friday sermon, come as Dearborn has entered the national spotlight as a center of resistance against President Biden’s campaign for re-election over his handling of the conflict in Gaza.
Activists in Dearborn, which has the country’s highest per capita population of Muslims, led a movement to encourage voters to mark “uncommitted” on their ballots instead of supporting the president during Michigan’s Democratic primary in February, with over 100,000 voters casting the protest vote.
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Islamic House of Knowledge leader Dr. Baqir Berry during a Friday sermon. (MEMRI)
But concerns about extreme rhetoric out of Dearborn have also surfaced, most notably after a rally on the last Friday of Ramadan featured a speaker that led those in attendance in chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”
While leaders of both the “Listen to Michigan” and “Abandon Biden” movements, as well as local religious leaders, told Fox News Digital last week that such rhetoric represents a vocal minority of area residents, concerns remain.
“There’s definitely support for Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran,” Steven Stalinsky, the executive director of MEMRI, told Fox News Digital last week.
Hamas members ride an armored vehicle during a celebration rally in Gaza City. (Abid Katib/Getty Images)
During last week’s sermon, Berry doubled down on the anti-Israel rhetoric, arguing Israel poses a “great and imminent” danger to humanity while comparing the Jewish State to Nazi Germany and the terrorist group ISIS.
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“Just like Nazism posed an imminent danger to all the surrounding countries, and just like the ISIS caliphate posed a great danger, and everybody wanted to end the existence of this ISIS entity and the Nazi entity, you cannot remove this great (Israeli) danger unless you remove (the entity),” Berry said, according to the MEMRI translation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convenes the weekly cabinet meeting at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 7, 2024. (Reuters/Ronen Zvulun/Pool/File Photo)
To combat the supposed danger, Berry told those in attendance that it was important to “reeducate” Jewish people.
“If you want a real democratic country, you need to reeducate the Jews… the Zionists, with a new culture of being open, seeing others as human beings, a culture of real peace and tolerance, rather than racism,” Berry said.
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The Islamic Institute of Knowledge did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
