In a July 21 Friday sermon delivered at the Islamic Center of Riverside, California, Sheikh Mahmoud Harmoush prayed to Allah to "destroy the unjust tyrants and the occupiers" and to "turn them into booty in the hands of the Muslims." The Syrian-born Sheikh Harmoush, who has been living in the U.S. since the 1980s and received academic degrees in California and West Virginia, said that the Jews had concocted a plot to take over Palestine and would be demanding Mecca and Medina and "most of the Middle East" next. "Allah wants us to have jihad in our lives, no matter what and where we are," said Sheikh Harmoush. "Wake up, it is time to be a Muslim. Prayer is not the only thing," he said. Sheikh Harmoush holds educational and leadership positions at several institutions in Southern California, teaches Arabic at California State University San Bernardino, and is a member of the leadership council of the Syrian American Council. The mosque at the Islamic Center of Riverside was attended by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the shooters in the 2015 San Bernardino terror attack, in which 14 people were killed.

Sheikh Mahmoud Harmoush: "Between World War I and World War II, so much of the immigration that came from Europe toward the Islamic world, whether North Africa or the Mediterranean area – Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and all of this... Muslims were opening their homes and saying: Those are our brethren, persecuted by the Christians in Europe. The Jews were coming from Germany, Poland, Italy, and everywhere else, and [the Muslims] would give them rooms, shelter them, and help them out, not knowing that there was a plan. Within the thirty years between the two incidents, until 1948 and the British occupation, everything was plotted to take over that beautiful land, in the way that we all know – with killing, crime, and massacres.

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"One brother sent me a video, showing a naked woman walking into the holy mosque under the occupation forces, just to insult more and more the psyche, honor, and dignity of the Muslims.

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"Allah wants us to have jihad in our lives, no matter what and where we are and what is happening. That's until in our hearts, we accept what is true and we reject what is false.

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"When you happen to be in Jerusalem, for example, around the holy mosque, and people are shooting you, putting you in the hospital, or killing you, you have to resist and fight back as much as you can. Otherwise our life will be meaningless.

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"Dear brothers and sisters, the conflict is not only in Palestine. They are going there, and they will be demanding that next.

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"I promise you, it is not only Palestine. If you are going to be like that, most of the Middle East, and even, as I said, Mecca and Medina... They will say: 'Muhammad has died. He left only daughters.' Muhammad died, and he left female children, who cannot fight. Then they will call, in their fighting: 'Oh, we will take revenge for Khaybar.' Where is Khaybar? They will go back to it. They will make every Muslim pay, one way or the other. Wake up, it is time to be a Muslim. Prayer is not the only thing.

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"Oh Allah, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque and all the Muslim lands from the unjust tyrants and the occupiers. Oh Allah, destroy them, they are no match for You. Oh Allah, disperse them, and rend them asunder. Turn them into booty in the hands of the Muslims.