Illinois Muslim Group Removes Controversial Video Panel

On Monday, a Muslim organization in Illinois took down a video panel that included Islamic quotes advocating violence against Jews, after being approached by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

In a discussion hosted by the anti-prison group Believers Bail Out (BBO), activists Dorba bin Wahad, Jalil Muntakim, and Jihad Abdulmumit spoke about navigating “extreme and revolutionary times.” Bin Wahad asserted that their struggles align with an Islamic source that contains violent prophecies.

“Every creature in this world… every bush and tree will say there is a Jew behind me, kill him,” he recited in a video recording, paraphrasing a passage associated with the 1988 Hamas Founding Charter.

Despite attempts to reach BBO for comment on Bin Wahad’s statements, there has been no response. The group opted to make its YouTube video private shortly afterward.

Organizers from BBO stated that they had helped 40 individuals escape pretrial detention and nine from immigration detention in the past year. A leftist group known as Defending Rights and Dissent financially supports BBO. However, inquiries about their position on the situation went unanswered.

During the presentation, a sign language interpreter visibly reacted after Bin Wahad’s comments on Jews, pausing and shaking his head before resuming his gestures.

Bin Wahad commented on the text’s significance, suggesting, “this is now becoming a reality: the European settler state of Israel is dragging the United States into World War III for that purpose. And of course, this settler state will be destroyed in the process.”

Bin Wahad has a complex history; he was indicted in 1971 for attempting to murder two police officers, though his conviction was later overturned due to concerns regarding an FBI operation. In contrast, Muntakim spent nearly 50 years in prison, and Abdulmumit served time for killing two police officers in 1971, as well as for a robbery he described as “bank expropriation.”

Muntakim expressed his beliefs to the audience, stating, “The United States is a slave nation,” explaining that while slavery was abolished in 1865, penal slavery was established at the same time.

He further argued that though leftist revolutionaries might not defeat their oppressors through military means, they can defend themselves. He suggested that a large-scale worker strike would be an effective tactic to “shut down this country.”

Highlighting the potential of former prisoners, Muntakim quoted the late Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh: “When the prison doors open, real dragons jump out.”