A Canadian imam delivered a speech describing disbelievers as “living like animals” and claimed Allah commands Muslims to hate them.
The imam, Younus Kathrada, made these remarks during a sermon he delivered at the Muslim Youth Victoria Islamic Center on May 26, 2023. The video of him saying these comments was transcribed and shared by the Middle East Media Research Institute or MEMRI.
Canadian Imam Younus Kathrada: Disbelievers Live Like Animals; They Are Like Cows Grazing in the Pasture, Unaware That They Will End Up in the Slaughterhouse; We Are Commanded by Allah to Hate Them #Canada pic.twitter.com/CQm7joXipM
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) May 31, 2023
During the sermon, Kathrada claimed that Allah, which “legislated Islam for us,” according to the imam, called Muslims to “hate, to reject, and to detest the disbelievers.” However, he made an analogy connecting the hatred for Muslims and hating other things, like broccoli.
“And here, let me just pause for a second. If I hate broccoli, does it mean that I am going to smash it all up and not allow anybody to eat it?” the imam reasoned.
He also attempted to clarify his comments on hating disbelievers by saying that hatred, while sometimes leading to violence, isn’t necessarily connected or similar to, or even leads to violence.
"When I say I hate something or someone – let's say that I hate someone – it means I hate them because of something that they stand for, for example. But it does not in any way, shape, or form indicate violence. Hatred is not equivalent to violence. Hatred might lead to violence, but not necessarily.” Kathrada insisted.
Allah's commandment. Verse [98:6] ~ Disbelievers are worst of creatures. They will roast in Fire of Hell.
Imam is corroborating what the holy book teaches. pic.twitter.com/oh6uhP0hKA— Aby (@Abyy_085) May 31, 2023
Kathrada also described disbelievers as living like animals, indulging in various vices and “enjoying” their lives without realizing they were being sent to the slaughterhouse.
"From the qualities [of the disbelievers] is that they live a life of animals. They live like beasts – not like human beings. This Allah clarified for us, and this is why we see them exaggerating, going to extremes in fulfilling their desires and their lusts. Nightclubs, drugs, you name it,” the Canadian imam said.
"The disbelievers enjoy their lives – 'enjoy' in quotation marks – to the fullest, while they are heedless of what is going to happen to them in the Hereafter, just like the cattle, that graze in the pastures, are unaware of the fact that they will probably end up in the slaughterhouse," he also added.
Thats Islam according to to the text....
— Barron (@BarronLaight) May 31, 2023
This wouldn’t be the first time Imam Younus Kathrada made controversial remarks regarding Islam and disbelievers. Last December 30, 2022, he said in a sermon that Muslims should never make friends with disbelievers because he claimed that disbelievers are enemies of Islam and Allah. Kathrada also said Muslims should wage jihad to establish Islam worldwide during a sermon on May 15, 2020.
