The Bernie Sanders campaign denounced the “toxic and offensive” past statements of an imam who spoke at a Sanders rally days before a key presidential primary in Michigan.Really?
Imam Sayed Hassan Al-Qazwini said in 2015 that the Islamic State terrorist group “somehow is connected to Israel.” The same year, commenting on a Supreme Court decision upholding the right to same-sex marriage, he said, “This is a moment that Americans would look back at with so much regret and sorrow, that we are legalizing something that is normal, something that is against human nature.”
Al-Qazwini introduced Sanders at a rally in Dearborn, Michigan on Saturday.
“The campaign has been made aware of offensive and toxic past statements by Imam Qazwini,” campaign manager Faiz Shakir said in a statement Tuesday, after a number of media outlets reported on the past statements of the founder of the Islamic Institute of America.
“These statements are dangerous, hateful, and violate the principles of our movement, which is based on values of equality and dignity for all people,” Shakir said. “Senator Sanders stands with those in Israel, Palestine, and across the region who work for peace, and unequivocally rejects antisemitic conspiracy theories that seek to blame Israel for all the region’s problems, and well as any bigoted statements against any group.”
I dare Bernie Sanders to find a single statement from his workers, surrogates and co-speakers at his rallies Rashida Tlaib, Amer Zahr, Phillip Agnew, Linda Sarsour, Ilhan Omar, Belén Sisa, Matt Duss, Shaun King, and even Faiz Shakir before 2020 that blames anyone but Israel for the conflict.
Just one. (And any statement that blames Abbas for being too conciliatory towards Israel doesn't count.)
Unless he can find that they are really as even-handed as Sanders claims to be, then this statement that he rejects those who spout "antisemitic conspiracy theories that seek to blame Israel for all the region’s problems" is simply a lie.