Mohammad Abbasi, whose Facebook page says he is an adjunct professor at Rutgers University's Newark campus, said in a Friday, February 7, 2020 sermon at the Darul Islah Mosque in Teaneck, New Jersey that the coronavirus is divine retribution for China's incarceration of Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps and for the fact that the Chinese eat animals while they are still alive. He said that while boycotting Chinese products is a small step, Allah has taken a bigger step against the Chinese by bringing the coronavirus upon them, and he stated that the coronavirus is "the least they should suffer."

Abbasi added: "May Allah punish them for what they did to our Muslim brothers even more." According to his Facebook page, Abbasi is from East Jerusalem. Rutgers University's website lists him as an adjunct faculty member and doctoral student at the School of Public Affairs and Administration at the Newark campus. Abbasi's sermon was posted on Darul Islah's YouTube channel.

Previously, Abbasi spoke at the November 28-30, 2019 American Muslims for Palestine conference at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. Speakers at the conference included American-Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour (see MEMRI TV clips 6808, 6935, and 6111); Temple University professor and former CNN contributor Marc Lamont Hill, with whom CNN severed ties following his controversial comments about Israel (see MEMRI TV clip 6877); American Muslims for Palestine national policy director Osama Abu Irshaid (see MEMRI TV clips 5487 and 5558), and Hatem Bazian, of the Near Eastern Studies faculty of the University of California, Berkeley.

Mohammad Abbasi: "The past few months, we have been talking about another hardship, another situation – the situation of our brothers and sisters, the Uyghurs in China, who correctly, by the way, should be called the East Turkestan brothers.

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"Those people are in concentrations camps. And we raised our hands and said: 'Oh Allah!' And they raised their hands and said: 'Oh, Allah, give us some relief.' Some of us went around, saying: 'Boycott all these filthy Chinese products. Stop buying this garbage made in China.' Sometimes it's hard. I wanted to buy my father a toaster. I went through 15 toasters at Walmart – couldn't find one that's not made in China. One has no power except that which comes from Allah. I needed to buy it, I had to. But I was obligated. But then you go buy socks and there are 20 made [in] China, and there is one in Vietnam, Cambodia, Egypt, or Turkey. Buy that one, even if you have to pay double. We were saying that. And people were saying: 'You mean to tell me that you are going to make a dent in the Chinese economy by boycotting their garbage products?' I said: 'I may not make a dent, but the Lord will and he did.' Their losses from the coronavirus – that is caused by them eating bats, dogs, snakes, rats, and mice – it is all on YouTube... They eat them while they are alive, they don't even wait for them to die. Brothers, they are sitting there, chopping meat from living animals and eating them. The coronavirus is the least they should suffer.

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"It is not up to us to decide whether boycotting a two-dollar item on Amazon, made in China, will work or not. Allah will make sure it works. We see an example right in front of us, brothers. China went from a predator and oppressive nation that has incarcerated three million of its inhabitants for no reason except that they say: 'Our Lord is Allah'...

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"And Allah accepted their supplication. And now we see China struggling and suffering and we don't see the end of it. Two thousand cases a day are being diagnosed. Two thousand a day. The whole world now is closing its borders on China. Now, instead of them imprisoning three million brothers, the three million brothers – through the act of Allah – are imprisoning the two billion Chinese. May Allah punish them for what they did to our Muslim brothers even more."