#1304: Mohammad al-Asi

Mohammad al-Asi is a Muslim Imam active in the global Islamic movement and involved with the Crescent International news magazine. He also claims to be associated with the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., but was, in fact, expelled in 1983; the Islamic Center denies any connection to him, though al-Asi still holds Jumu’ah khutbahs every Friday on the sidewalk in front of the Center.

Al-asi is perhaps most famous as a 9/11 truther, and has claimed that the 9/11 attacks were “planned were planned by the American administration, to be used as a pretext and justification to fight terrorism.” al-Asi has accused Israel of carrying out the WTC attacks after the U.S. refused their request to put down the Palestinian intifada, though it is, ultimately, somehow the fault of the US, who “fabricated the racist state of Israel in our Holy Land”. He even offers some “evidence” (PRATTs) for Israel’s “macro-managing” of the events that should be relatively familiar to those who have engaged with 9/11 conspiracies.

-       “Why were people on Wall Street, why were those people frantically selling airline and insurance shares in the days before September 11?”

-       Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon “was supposed tocome to the U.S. on September 11, and he didn't make his appearance here … . Did he know something the rest of us didn't know?”

-       “Where were the 4,000 to 5,000 Israeli Jews that were supposed to be in those two buildings on the 11^th, and after the dust settled, why can they only confirm one dead and two injured?”

His article “The Qur'an says: Zionist Israel will be shattered,” sums up his views on Israel. Needless to say, the views are not particularly favorable, but for the purposes of this Encyclopedia the views are more importantly backed up by standard Zionist world government rhetoric. It does, for instance, not suffice to criticize Israel politics; all Jews are evil: “We have a psychosis in the Jewish community that is unable to co-exist equally and brotherly with other human beings. You can take a Jew out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of the Jew.” He has also predicted the defeat of the Jews by Muslims, stating that “The prophet of Allah, upon whom be peace, summed it up when he said: ‘The final hour shall not commence until the Muslims engage Yahud [Jew] in warfare. And the Muslims will deal the deathblow to Yahud. These Yahud will hide behind timber and boulder that will call out on Muslims: ‘O Muslim there is a Yahudi in disguise, come and annihilate him.’”

Diagnosis: Religiously motivated conspiracy theorist. Though al-Asi’s influence is probably rather limited, religious fanaticism and conspiracy theory is a powerful combo. Should be watched.