On November 11, 2016, Imam Ammar Shahin gave a Friday sermon at the Islamic Center of Davis, California, in which he compared democracy and the constitution to "idols that the infidels used to worship, which were made from dates." Imam Shahin said that unlike the Quran, democracy is man-made and could be changed. "You are taking democracy, the constitution, and all these matters that they fool you with... as a sacred religion now?" he asked.

MEMRI recently exposed two antisemitic sermons by Imam Shahin (for his July 21, 2017 sermon, see https://www.memri.org/tv/california-sermon-antisemitic-sermon-kill-jews-liberate-al-aqsa-mosque; for his July 14 sermon, see https://www.memri.org/tv/california-sermon-ammar-shahin-prays-allah-turn-jerusalem-palestine-into-graveyard-for-jews/). Following the Islamic Center of Davis's claim that MEMRI had mistranslated and taken Imam Shahin's July 21 statements out of context, MEMRI published a response: see https://memri.org/reports/memri-responds-islamic-center-daviss-statement-following-exposure-imam-shahins-july-21).

Sheikh Ammar Shahin: "You want to go and protest in the streets, if it is going to change anything? Go ahead! You chose democracy and you chose... The ruling of people is the ruling of people that could change at any time because it is a law made by the hand of humans. Therefore it could be changed. You are taking democracy, the constitution, and all these matters that they fool you with... You are taking it as a sacred religion now? It's not Quran. It's a change. If they want a change, they will change it. One amendment they don't like. There you go – let's vote to change it. Finished! It is not Quran. It is not Sahih Bukhari. It is not Sahih Muslim. This is what Muslims should know. You know this. We follow the law. We live by the law wherever we are. But know that this law could change any time. If they want to change it for you, they will, and against you, they will.

"They are talking about people getting deported – if they want to do that, they will do it. Who cares if it is against the constitution? It is not revealed by God. Muslims now have taken these matters as revelation. And you know better – that it is not. Like someone described it before – he said: These things, these matters, democracy, constitution, all of these things that people make today, are like the idols that the infidels used to worship, which were made from dates. The infidels used to worship idols from dates. They'll make their own date idol that looks very nice. But when they get hungry, what would they do? They eat it. This is what happened. They eat their gods. Yeah, because they need it... Omar said: 'When I look back at what I used to do, I used to make an idol from dates, and I looked at it and I worshipped it.' He said: 'How dumb was I – that when I get hungry, I eat my god?' This is what they do now."