Here’s a story that demonstrates how far we have come as a nation from the days when all you had to worry about when going to the dentist was that he might not use enough novocaine. Dr. Fadi Kablawi is a dentist in Miami who doubles as an imam at Masjid As Sunnah An Nabawiyyah North Miami. Recently he preached a Friday sermon there in which he prayed, “Oh Allah, annihilate the tyrannical Jews.” Note that he didn’t pray for the annihilation of the “Israelis” or “Zionists,” but of the Jews. Now, however, he might lose his license to practice as a dentist because of this, and the key question is: why hasn’t he lost it already?
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported that, in a sermon that went out on the Miami mosque’s Facebook page, Kablawi prayed:
Oh Allah, support our oppressed brothers in Palestine. Oh Allah, annihilate the tyrannical Jews. Oh Allah, annihilate them, for they are no match for You. Oh Allah, annihilate the brothers of apes and pigs. Oh Allah, demonstrate upon them the wonders of Your might. Oh Allah, cut off their seed. Oh Allah, break up their fellowship. Oh Allah, disperse them and rend them asunder.
That business about the “brothers of apes and pigs” is a reference to the Qur’an, which repeats three times (2:63-66; 5:59-60; 7:166) that Allah transformed disobedient Jews into apes and pigs. Jihadis and their allies like to apply this to all Jews, or at least to those who are resisting jihad in Israel today.
Kablawi may want Allah to act because Hamas hasn’t been doing so well against the Israelis in Gaza, but on top of the obvious evil of his praying for the annihilation of an entire people, Kablawi’s words carried an added sinister edge. This is because Muslims are told in the Qur’an that they should be the executors of the wrath of Allah: “Fight them, and Allah will punish them by your hands, and he will lay them low and give you victory over them, and he will heal the hearts of people who are believers. And he will remove the anger of their hearts.” (Qur’an 9:14-15).
So if Allah will punish the infidels by the hands of the believers, and Kablawi is praying that Allah would “annihilate” the Jews, it is not unreasonable to see that as a call for Muslims to get busy annihilating Jews, so that Allah can punish them by the Muslims’ hands.
That’s how many people have understood Kablawi’s prayer. Newsweek reported Monday that “Florida state Representative Randy Fine, chairman of the Florida House Health and Human Services Committee, submitted a letter to Dr. Jose R. Mellado, chairman of the Florida Board of Dentistry, requesting the suspension of Kablawi’s dental license and an investigation into his practice.
Fine said that he had submitted this letter after some of Kablawi’s Jewish patients had contacted him, and his letter was right on point: “North Miami, where dentist Kablawi practices, contains many Jewish residents, none of whom could be considered safe in Imam Kablawi’s dental chair, where he could personally implement what he is asking Allah to do.” Indeed he could.
Fine’s letter continued: “Practicing medicine in Florida is a privilege—not a right—and as the Chairman of the Florida House Health and Human Services Committee, I call on you to immediately suspend Dr. Kablawi’s license and commence a thorough investigation into his practice. The lives of some of Florida’s Jews could hang in the balance.”
This wasn’t even the first time Kablawi said such a thing. MEMRI has also reported that Kablawi said, in a Friday sermon on March 8, “Allah revealed to the messengers, instantly: ‘We will defeat the oppressors, and We will make you the dwellers of their land, of their homes.’… By Allah, those settlements that they built, by Allah we will live in them.… By Allah, we will seize [them]. By Allah, we will enjoy [them]. By Allah, we will live in [them]. If it is not us, our children will live in [them]. By Allah, the law of Allah and the shari’a of Allah will rule the land.”
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This would amount to a prediction of the total destruction of Israel, which would mean a new genocide of the Jews, and Kablawi wasn’t finished. He prayed, “Oh Allah, support their mujahideen. Oh Allah, guide their shooting. Oh Allah, support them with our soldiers. Oh Allah, bring annihilation upon enemies of Islam. Oh Allah, bring annihilation upon the accursed Zionists. Oh Allah, curse them and then curse them some more. Oh Allah, heal the breasts of the believers.”
That time, he stopped short of praying that Allah would “annihilate the Jews.” This time, he didn’t. He should be stopped from practicing dentistry immediately, before he decides to show that these weren’t empty words.