Source: MEMRI
Michigan-based Islamic scholar Imam Ameer Mustapha Elturk, who immigrated to the United States from Lebanon in 1976 during the Lebanese civil war, said in a lecture that was uploaded to YouTube on October 12, 2019 that Allah revealed Islam to the Prophet Muhammad so that it could be made to prevail over all man-made non-Islamic systems of law and government, including liberal democracy, Communism, socialism, and the laws of “We, the People” that are currently in countries such as the United States.
He said that Muslims must not abide by any law that contradicts shari’a law, that they must struggle in order to restore the glory of Islam and the Muslims, and that he chose to immigrate to the United States instead of Communist Romania because he had no desire to be a Communist and because the liberty and freedom of speech in the United States enable people to freely preach Islam and propagate Islamic ideology.
Imam Elturk said that the Jihad of the Quran and of the heart is the biggest Jihad Muslims can do and that in pursuit of justice, he sometimes has to “deal with” non-Muslims, LGBTQ people, and atheists. The lecture was delivered at the Evergreen Islamic Center in San Jose, California. Imam Elturk is the Imam of the Islamic Organization of North America (IONA) Masjid in Warren, Michigan and on March 8, 2020, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) retweeted a video of Imam Elturk endorsing Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for President. The video was uploaded to a Youtube channel run by Hafiz Khan, who is a scholar based in Santa Clara, CA.
