Iraqi-American Sheikh Ibrahim Kazerooni of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan, said in a Friday, January 3, 2020 sermon that America’s killing of IRGC General Qasem Soleimani and PMU Deputy Chairman Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis earlier that day had been a “cowardly and heinous act” and that the only countries celebrating his death are the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. He led a prayer for the souls of Soleimani and Al-Muhandis and told the congregation that Soleimani had “brought hope to the marginalized [and] hatred and fear to the enemies of Islam.” He explained that Soleimani had been instrumental in keeping the Syrian regime in power despite American and Zionist attempts to destabilize it, in defending Iraq against ISIS alongside the PMU, and in ultimately defeating ISIS in Iraq, which Sheikh Kazerooni described as the “extended arm of American foreign policy.” He cited several examples from Islamic literature that speak of martyrdom as a virtuous act and added: “Let’s wait and see what happens next.”
