Summary
A Syrian-American activist in Chicago — past president and board chairman of the Mosque Foundation, former board member and chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, and president of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) — whose public attacks on Palestine solidarity activists over Syria mark the Syrian-Palestinian fissure in Lybarger’s Chapter 3 (Palestinian Chicago — Identity in Exile, PDF p.112-114).
Details
- In a Facebook post shared publicly on October 14, 2014, Sahloul stated that al-Aqsa was indeed in danger and Muslims must defend it, but asserted that over three and a half years not one large Muslim demonstration had occurred in Chicago to protest “the criminal regime’s” destruction of Syrian lives and holy places: “We condemn Israel! [But] give me a break for [sic] your hypocrisy dear brothers and sisters” (PDF p.112-113 / printed p.91-92).
- In 2016, as immediate past president and senior advisor of SAMS, he accused prominent Palestinian and Jewish Palestine solidarity activists on Twitter of serving as a “fifth column who have been [sic] promoting war criminals, supporting the genocidal politics of Assad and Putin” and of probably getting paid by Russian and Assad PR firms, calling them “the equivalent of the propaganda machine of Hitler”; his targets were Ali Abunimah and Max Blumenthal (PDF p.113 / printed p.92).
- Blumenthal’s writings, to which Sahloul was responding, linked Sahloul, SAMS and other anti-regime Syrian groups to US government agencies, Turkish and Qatari intelligence services, Jewish organizations supporting Israel’s hard line, and Syrian Islamist movements, and alleged SAMS pressured the Obama and Trump administrations toward military reprisals against the Syrian regime (PDF p.114 / printed p.93).
- Abunimah responded that Sahloul’s assertions were baseless and accused SAMS of collaborating with the “anti-Palestinian group [Jewish United Fund of Chicago]” (PDF p.114 / printed p.93).
Related pages
Palestinian Chicago — Identity in Exile · Mosque Foundation · American Muslims for Palestine · Ali Abunimah · Max Blumenthal