The 92nd Street Y, now known as 92Y, the prominent New York Jewish cultural center is scheduled to host a virtual event on June 18 featuring an imam who has defended the call to destroy the State of Israel.
The event features Rabbi Peter Rubinstein of the Central Synagogue of New York, a Reform congregation, and Imam Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid of the Islamic Brotherhood Mosque, New York. They plan to discuss how society can move forward amid the hardship of “recent events,” although the description of the event does not specifically mention such events, including the death of George Floyd, 46, who died in Minneapolis Police custody on May 25.
Abdur-Rashid visited the White House twice—in June and July 2010—during the Barack Obama administration, according to White House visitor logs. In 2006, he defended then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s call for Israel’s destruction.
While Abdur-Rashid acknowledged the Holocaust as “one of the great tragedies of humanity, along with slavery, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Bosnia and Rwanda,” he said that Ahmadinejad’s call for Israel’s annihilation echoed a “sentiment born of the legitimate anger, frustration and bitterness that is felt in many parts of the Muslim world.”
In 2005, he defended Rafiq Sabir, an American doctor convicted two years later for agreeing to be a medic for wounded members of Al-Qaeda overseas. Sabir was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
“Dr. Sabir was well-known here in Harlem and known, really, as a humanitarian physician,” said Abdur-Rashid.
The imam made other controversial comments, including accusing Muslims of conspiring with law enforcement agencies such as the NYPD and the US government of “the way that it does things and sets people up.”
92Y and Rubinstein did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
