An Islamic preacher in the United States argued that human rights came from the Quran and the Hadith and were stolen by secular nations, adding that American capitalism is the greatest terrorist threat in the modern age and that LGBTQIA+ rights are not human rights.
Ali Hassan made these claims during a Friday sermon at the Muslim American Society in Dearborn, Michigan, which has the largest Muslim population in the United States, on February 7th.
During his sermon, he first claimed that Muslims are the original teachers of human rights and that secular nations only stole it, adding that the Geneva Convention was created to be implemented upon Muslims. He also claimed that American capitalism has been the greatest terrorist in the modern era.
"Within these 30 articles of universal human rights that secular nations have created to implement upon Muslims and say that we don't have a grasp of human rights, when, in fact, we are the teachers of human rights,” Ali said. "The American dollar and capitalism has been the greatest terrorist in the modern age.”
Ali also claimed that even the Geneva Accords talks about the right of resistance and how countries find loopholes so that certain groups can be designated as terrorists.
"They claim that a certain group of individuals are a terrorist group. Even within the Geneva Accords, it talks about the right to resistance. It's quite interesting how they implement their law. Even a resistance force – if they don't like it, they'll just say: 'Oh, it's a terrorist group.' So they find loopholes,” Ali said.
He further claimed that the oldest definition of human rights came from the Prophet Muhammad, adding that the rules of warfare established by the Geneva Conventions were taken from Islamic teachings.
"The oldest definition – the oldest place – of what is human rights was found in the Hadith – not 75 years ago, not after World War II, but when the Prophet Muhammad came to us,” Ali claimed.
"To say that we are the terrorists and that we are the ones who are doing this, even though we have developed the most... We have rules for warfare. If you look at the Geneva Convention... Those rulings are not just based on their own accord. They took rulings from the Quran and traditional Islamic studies, and they also took them from Biblical sources,” he added.
"They took it from both sources. And they implemented Islamic sources, Islamic law – shari'a – on the Geneva Accords.” Ali further claimed. “This is not something that they developed. They took it from us.“
The Islamic preacher then turned to the LGBTQIA+ community, which he disparagingly called the “alphabet people“ and argued that LGBTQIA+ rights are not human rights. Ali also emphasized that it is Muslims who must teach what human rights are.
"We have to be the ones who say: No, this is not allowed. Even within our societies...Allowing for things like the 'alphabet people,' to implement their ideas of what it means to be moral…” Ali said.
"We have to be the ones to teach them: No, this is not a humanitarian issue. These are not rights that are endowed upon you. These might be civil rights, but they are not human rights. They are not humanitarian rights. And then they use it to weaponize against us. We have to be the ones that teach [this]," he added.
