The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations has launched a probe into the April 17 “Umma Day” celebration held at the Muslim American Society’s Philadelphia chapter.
The children wore Palestinian Arab scarves in a video of the event, and performed songs praising the “blood of martyrs” and the liberation of sovereign Israeli territory into Muslim hands.
Some of the dialogue read by two young girls in the video, uploaded to the chapter’s Facebook page, follows:
Child Narrator: Those who accept humiliation – what is the point in their existence? Those who reject oppression are the ones who assert their existence, and they eliminate the injustice from the land of the Arabs.
Children Singing: Rebels! Rebels! Rebels! Glorious steeds call us and lead us onto paths leading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The blood of martyrs protects us. Paradise needs real men!
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The land of the Prophet Muhammad’s Night Journey is calling us. Our Palestine must return to us. Oh Saladdin, your men are among us – shame will be washed away!
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[You need] force and the Quran, oh free people! We must persevere no matter what happens, and with the help of the Omnipotent Lord, day will follow night.
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Take us, oh ships, until we liberate our lands – until we reach our shores and crush the treacherous ones!
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Blow, oh winds of Paradise – flow, oh rivers of martyrs! My Islam is calling, who is going to heeds its call? Rise, oh righteous ones!
[…]
Girl 1: Our martyrs sacrificed their lives without hesitation. They attained Paradise, and the scent of musk emanates from their bodies. They compete with one another to reach Paradise. Will Jerusalem be their capital city, or will it be a hotbed for cowards?
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Girl 2: We will defend the land of divine guidance with our bodies, and we will sacrifice our souls without hesitation. We will chop off their heads, and we will liberate the sorrowful and exalted Al-Aqsa Mosque. We will lead the army of Allah fulfilling His promise, and we will subject them to eternal torture.
The Muslim American Society has since taken the video down from its page and said in a statement:
“As a faith-based organization committed to building a just and virtuous society, we stand strong in our condemnation of hate and violence anywhere, even in the lyrics of a song… the school that organized the event on April 17, 2019 is a separate entity renting space from MAS Philadelphia. The school board has informed us that it has taken immediate actions and dismissed the person in charge of the program. In addition, they will form a local commission to aid in sensitivity training and proper supervision for future programs.”
The national Muslim American Society (MAS) has 42 chapters in the United States, and one in the United Kingdom.
The Muslim American Society in Philadelphia shares space with the Al-Hidaya mosque, where many ‘Palestinian immigrants’ pray, according to Jacob Bender, executive director of the Council on Islamic American Relations’ Philadelphia chapter, who spoke with the local CBS News affiliate.
Bender, who is Jewish, said Monday the mosque asked the council to hold a “workshop on diversity and religious tolerance” to help “members of the immigrant Muslim community have a better understanding of Jewish sensitivities and anti-Semitism, so that events like this don’t repeat themselves.” He claimed the incident was not an example of radicalization: “This was a stupid decision by an untrained pedagogue and volunteer teacher.”
But this is not the first time that such songs and poems have been performed by children on the stage of the Muslim American Society in Philadelphia, and not only for an “Umma Day” celebration, or by one particular program of the organization either.
A May 28, 2017 video clip downloaded and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), however, shows it’s not that simple.
In that clip, three young girls at the Muslim American Society Leaders Academy in Philadelphia performed a song with the words, “I am a daughter of the revolution . . . With my blood, I crossed the border to Palestine of the free . . . I emerge from the gates of the Al Aqsa Mosque. I am a spike in the fence of my home. . . Your perseverance, defiance and determination will turn us into fedayeen. . . I am a stone in a rebel’s sling – I am a revolution that shakes the occupier. . . We will be martyred on your soil. . .”