Area police remain on high alert after video of an antisemitic rant made at a local Islamic Center earlier this month surfaced online. A guest Imam at the Islamic Center of Rockland in Valley Cottage delivered a controversial sermon in which he asked Allah to “grant victory to our brothers in Gaza and in Palestine, guide their shooting, destroy the Zionist Jews, seize them with a crushing grip, and make their plots backfire on them.” The comments were slammed by local officials. Clarkstown supervisor George Hoehmann said the “extreme and hateful rhetoric is unacceptable and has no place here in Clarkstown”…
Ramapo’s chief of staff, Mona Montal, says the town has worked with the Islamic Center in the past on various projects, the supervisor worked with them as an attorney in the past as well, and they consider them friends …
Montal says the town’s police department had already been in a state of high alert, and they’ve seen no activity thus far stemming from or related to the Imam’s remarks. In a statement posted on their website, the Center condemned and apologized for the remarks, the pain they caused, and they “stand against anti-Semitism and any rhetoric that incites violence or hatred” and will ensure their platform is not used to promote harmful messages going forward.