In terms reminiscent of those celebrating Palestinian suicide bombers, two Muslim leaders in Michigan—Sheikh Ali Elahi of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, Mich., and Mustapha Elturk, the “Ameer” of the Islamic Organization of North America—praised the U.S. airman who ended his own life to oppose Israel’s war to destroy Hamas.
The two Muslim leaders spoke at an interfaith prayer vigil held on March 3 near the Henry Ford library in Dearborn, as reported by MEMRI.
Elahi said that Aaron Bushnell “sent a mighty message to the entire world” when he burned himself alive in an “amazing” act of “self-sacrifice.”
Elahi called Bushnell “a pure martyr in this country” who opposed the “Hitlers of the 21st century” and prophesied that one day there would be statues of him in a “free Palestine.”
Elturk prayed that Bushnell’s “sacrifice” should “pierce the hearts of the callous, the heartless, guiding them to recognize the shared humanity that unites us all.”
He also called on Allah to “empower the Palestinians with your formidable strength, to overcome and triumph over their adversaries, who are not just their foes but the adversaries of all humanity.”
