US Muslim Leader Praises Hamas Attack on Israel: 'Great Victory'

A Maryland imam has described the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants as a "great victory" during a lecture at a religious center in the state.

In a livestreamed talk on October 21, Mahmoud Abdel-Hady, the spiritual leader of the Maryum Islamic Center in Ellicott City, a suburb of Baltimore, suggested the attack—which saw around 1,400 Israelis killed, including many civilians—would knock the confidence of Israel and ultimately lead to its withdrawal from Palestinian territory.

"What happened during the seventh of this month was a victory," he told the audience. "In a frame of time, that was a great victory. In certain wars in the [history] of the world before, these moments of victory affected the way the whole picture went on afterwards, because the enemy no longer has the same confidence it had before. Remember what happened in Vietnam."

Abdel-Hady went on to draw a parallel with the Tet Offensive of 1968, in which the North Vietnamese military launched a surprise attack on South Vietnam.

Though the coordinated assault was intended to inspire an uprising in the southern territory that would ultimately lead to its collapse, it did not achieve this aim. However, it did lead to growing dissent towards the war in the U.S. and led to a reassessment of its military strategy. America would eventually withdraw from Vietnam in 1973.

During the lecture, which was first highlighted by the Washington D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute, Abdel-Hady said Muslims "will be the ones in control" and "have the final say" over world events due to population growth around the globe. "The way we have children, just a few years from now, we are going to be all over," he said.

Abdel-Hady also claimed: "Jerusalem will be ours, there is no doubt about that. This is a promise from Allah, and it is going to happen."

Jerusalem, which is seen as a spiritual home for the three Abrahamic faiths, is claimed by both Israel and Palestine as their capital. The city is not directly mentioned in the Quran but is referenced in other Islamic texts.

Newsweek approached Abdel-Hady through the Maryum Islamic Center via email for comment on Tuesday.

Many commentators have suggested the October 7 attack took Israeli military and intelligence forces entirely by surprise, prompting questions of the Israeli government whose leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has often touted his security credentials.

Since then, Israeli forces have conducted an intensive campaign of air strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza and began a major ground offensive on the Palestinian territory over the weekend. Netanayahu has said the operation will aim to destroy Hamas.

As of Tuesday, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says 8,306 Palestinians have been killed so far in Gaza, according to The Associated Press, while a further 122 have been killed in violence in the West Bank.

In response to Israeli military intervention in Gaza, there have been demonstrations and shows of support for Palestinians around the world, including in several U.S. cities, which in some cases have spilled over into expressions of support for Hamas's actions and overt antisemitism.

In some cases, those who have praised Hamas—which is proscribed as a terrorist organization in America and some other nations—following the attacks have lost their jobs. However, a recent poll found that 57.5 percent of American Muslims believe the attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad were at least "somewhat justified."

According to the Maryum Islamic Center website, Abdel-Hady has been an imam in Ellicott City for 19 years and "is very active in inter-faith dialogue and outreach." He is also listed as an instructor with Muslim youth organization the Islamic Leadership Institute of America.

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