Protecting Truth and Community: Standing with Imam Dobal and NICC Against Islamophobic Attacks
YUSRA condemns the dangerous and dishonest mistranslations being used to vilify Imam Abdel Moneim Dobal and Noor Islamic Cultural Center (NICC).
A false translation circulated by JewishColumbus, sourced from Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), an outlet with a long history of pushing anti-Muslim narratives—intentionally twists the Imam’s words to stoke fear and paint Muslim communities as dangerous. This is Islamophobia in action.
MEMRI, known for selectively translating Arabic speech to reinforce harmful stereotypes, inserted words like ‘annihilation’ and ‘extermination’—deliberately framing the Imam’s religious language as incitement. This fuels dangerous Islamophobic narratives and puts Muslim communities at risk.
What’s happening in Columbus right now isn’t a misunderstanding, it’s a strategy. Islamophobia is being intentionally weaponized to silence Muslim voices and distract from growing global outrage at Israel’s ongoing assault on the Palestinian people.
The deliberate surveillance, mistranslation, and distortion of Abdel Moneim Dobal’s sermon at Noor Islamic Cultural Center is part of a broader pattern: turning Muslim faith leaders into targets for simply naming injustice. This campaign, led by JewishColumbus and amplified by elected officials and local media, twists a call for accountability and justice into something it never was.
Imam Dobal’s prayer did not call for violence. It named state violence for what it is. But instead of engaging honestly, some have chosen to weaponize mistranslation and fear — putting Muslim communities in harm’s way. This isn’t just dangerous; it’s deeply irresponsible.
Elected officials who echoed these falsehoods without even basic fact-checking have a duty to correct the harm they’ve caused. Amplifying baseless accusations against an imam and a mosque doesn’t build safety. It erodes it. It feeds an already hostile climate for Muslims in Ohio and across the country.
Critiquing Zionism is not antisemitism. Calling for accountability for state violence is not a call for violence against Jewish people. And mistranslating religious language to vilify Muslim leaders is not “safety”—it’s targeting.
We reject this bad-faith attack. We demand a public retraction from JewishColumbus and elected officials who have amplified these lies. Misrepresentation like this puts real people and real communities at risk.
We call on elected officials to:
Publicly condemn this wave of Islamophobia;
Meet directly with legitimate Muslim community leadership;
And reject fear-based narratives that endanger our communities.
Safety must be rooted in truth, not in political convenience. We stand in solidarity — with Imam Dobal, with NICC, and with all communities fighting to live free from hate and fear.