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Imam Alhagie Jallow is a pillar of the community in Madison, Wisc. He has been a guest of Gov. Tony Evers and is happy to meet with non-Muslims who are interested in learning about Islam. After the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in Israel, however, Jallow showed a different side, one that authorities in Wisconsin would do well to note carefully. Will they? Unlikely. That would be “Islamophobic.” But this is serious nevertheless.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) on Friday posted excerpts from a hair-raising Friday sermon Jallow preached at the Madinah Community Center in Madison six days after the massacres in Israel. This imam who, according to the Madinah Community Center website, “meets with non-Muslims to help grow an understanding of the Islamic religion,” offered a revealing glimpse of what all too many Muslims, including Jallow himself, think the Islamic religion is all about, and it likely differs markedly from the soothing version he presents to inquirers.
Jallow offered a vision of jihad as warfare that differed sharply from the “spiritual struggle” line that Islamic spokesmen and apologists in the West much more frequently provide. And while we have been told again and again that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the U.S. reject terrorism, this is what Jallow had to say less than a week after a terror group carried out an appalling series of mass killings: “We neglected the principle of support, which is jihad for the sake of Allah.” “Jihad for the sake of Allah” (jihad fi sabil Allah) in Islamic theology refers specifically to warfare to advance the hegemony of Islamic law over lands where it is not currently in force.
The learned imam, who was born in Gambia and earned a degree in Islamic law from the Islamic University of Imam Muhammad bin Saud in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, went on to exhort his hearers to take up arms in the cause of Islam: “Allah said in the Quran: ‘Fight in the path of Allah those who fight against you.’” Those who believe in this as a command from the supreme being “will fight, they will defend their religion, they will defend their land, not with their tongues, but with their blood.” He added, “Each one of us should be a soldier today. So I… You know jihad… They will try everything, but it’s only jihad that can bring victory not contracts, not agreements, not alliances – not all of these things.”
Jihad, said Jallow, was essential: “The only thing that can bring glory to this Islamic nation is the jihad, which is mentioned in the Quran and the hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad. The only thing that can bring honor and glory to this nation is Jihad.” On Oct. 7, the Hamas jihadis had gained this glory. He continued, “Our brothers in Gaza are heroes! By Allah, they are warriors, heroes, they are men, just like the Companions,” that is, Muhammad’s circle of followers. “They do not fear death.”
Investigative journalist Daniel Greenfield pointed out Sunday that all this is vastly different from what Jallow has said publicly before. In 2016, Greenfield noted, Jallow was reported as having said that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism: Jallow “said terrorist attacks carried out across the globe by those who identify as Muslim are not acts of Islam.”
The report depicted Jallow laying it on thick: “Islam condemns the killing of human beings, he said. Jallow quoted a verse from the Quran which is translated as: ‘If a person saves one soul, the reward is for saving the whole world. And if you kill one soul, the consequences and punishment for that is as if you killed the whole world.’”
But after Oct. 7, Jallow cried out: “Oh Jews, you unjust, criminal, corrupt oppressors – stop! You will all most definitely be killed. The Jews, the aggressors, the evil… You describe them, what they do. By Allah, all of them will be killed by Muslims. They all will be executed by Muslims. They will all be killed, this is a divine promise that will inevitably be fulfilled. This is a promise from Allah and it is going to happen. They will all be killed. They will all be killed, and on that day, the believers will rejoice in Allah’s victory.”
Is that a call for genocide? It sure looks like one. If a Christian preacher had said anything like this, you can bet it would have been taken for one. But what’s even more remarkable is that it has been four days now since MEMRI’s clips from Jallow’s sermon were published, and yet no reporter seems to have asked him about these bloodthirsty words. He has had to offer no explanation, much less a retraction. No one cares.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D-What Did You Expect?), invited Jallow to the Executive Residence in May to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Will Evers be asked to apologize and repudiate Jallow? Come on, man! This isn’t a Republican governor we’re talking about. Evers is more likely to bring Jallow back to the mansion and give him an award.