The leader of a Texas-based mosque in the same neighborhood as a residence belonging to Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran who killed 14 people in a car-ramming attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, has been known to spread antisemitic conspiracy theories.
According to video from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Eiad Soudan, imam of Masjid Bilal mosque in Houston, said in a November 2023 sermon at a youth event that one of the “many problems” associated with Jews is that they “like to take control of the economy.”
Soudan said, “Everywhere they go, whatever is the rule, as long as they get to the goal, the means don’t matter.”
He stated that Jews “seek corruption in the land” and that “Hitler hated the Israelites so bad because of the economy thing; they were in control of the economy.”
Reports do not confirm if Jabbar—who was raised Muslim, left the faith and reportedly recently returned to practicing it—attended the mosque.
