An imam in Lubbock, Texas called on Muslims to fight Israeli forces in Gaza during a public online chat, The Investigative Project on Terrorism has reported. The imam, Sheikh Mohamed El-Moctar El-Shinqiti, is the director of the Islamic Center of South Plains and also called on Muslims to support “the resistance” financially or politically if they could not travel to Gaza to fight.

El-Shinqiti did not condemn the Hamas terrorist organization that Israel is trying to combat in Gaza.

“The oppression of the Palestinian people did not start today. It started six decades ago. And if we suppose that the resistance stops now, the oppression will continue, in the form of an ugly occupation and starving siege,” he said. “Therefore, what is needed today is to stop the oppression, not to stop the resistance…anyone who can move from expression to action in support the oppressed Gazan people, he or she has to do so.”

IPT notes that El-Shinqiti’s call to support the “resistance” is a way of calling on Muslims to support Hamas.

“Taking El-Shinqiti's advice would mean joining forces with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. Israel's incursion into Gaza is in its third week, prompted by a new wave of rockets sent by Hamas into Israeli cities. The fighting has left more than 900 Palestinians dead – most of them Hamas fighters - yet Hamas continues to fire rockets at Israeli towns,” the report said.

IPT reported that El-Shinqiti had previously made comments indicating he was a moderate, such as saying he did not favor strict Islamic teaching based on Wahhabism, the official religion of Saudi Arabia, and said he did not believe in punishing people who left the Islamic faith.