Imam Johari Abdul-Malik has resigned his post as the Director of Outreach of a mosque in the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia after the mosque’s senior Imam Shaker Elsayed, made disgusting remarks on June 3rd supporting the routine sexual mutilation of young girls. The practice is widespread in Muslim countries throughout Africa and the Middle East. According to the World Health Organization over 30 countries worldwide subscribe to this horrific practice.

Abdul-Malik said yesterday that Shaker Elsayed made “many reprehensible statements” about the barbaric practice when he said that it was needed to ensure that girls do not grow into “hyper sexually active” women. The mosque’s board denounced their senior Imam’s comments on Monday of this past week and put him on administrative leave two days later. After being put in “timeout” Elsayed came back and issued  a “clarification” through the mosque’s website that stated:

“Islam would never support anything that harms anybody’s well-being I hereby take it back. And I do apologize to all those who are offended by it”

Abdul-Malik said that the reason he is resigning is that the actions of the mosque’s board were not strong enough. According to an article in the Daily Mail:

“Ultimately, The Board of Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center is responsible for the direction of the community and its leadership. They are proceeding in a different direction than I believe is in the best interest of the congregation and the community at-large,’ Abdul-Malik wrote.”

I congratulate Abdul-Malik for doing the right thing and calling out his senior’s support of a horrific practice. The mosque, however, has been a hotbed of terrorist activity in the past. After all,  a past Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki left the mosque, and the country, to join al-Qaeda after interacting with three of the 9/11 highjackers. Elsayed for his part seems to have an affinity for supporting terrorists as well since he served as the unofficial spokesman for Ahmed Omar Abu-Ali who was convicted of joining al-Qaeda while studying overseas and masterminding a plan to assassinate George W. Bush who was President at the time.

In an interview with the AP in 2005, Elsayed also defended Hamas, another militant Islamist organization in an interview about the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. What a stellar guy! I frankly think that we should just shutter this mosque and call it a day. If you are concerned about religious liberty I say this, watch the interview below with Ayaan Hirsi-Ali in response to the FGM controversy in Michigan that Deanna has followed for us here. After that, we can talk about preserving the religious liberty of people who think it is acceptable practice to sexually mutilate little girls.