A slip of the mask

www.americanthinker.com

The death of anyone, especially a public figure, has long been treated as a moment for restraint, reflection, or at the very least, silence. Even in this polarized political age, most Americans respect the basic decency of not celebrating someone’s passing. That is why the reaction of Texas Islamic Imam Omar Suleiman to the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham was needless and disgraceful.

Imam Omar Suleiman, posted on social media, “Bye Lindsey. May you live an eternity in ruins for the ruins you helped create in Gaza.”

In other news, Lindsey Graham is dead.
“I am with Israel. Do whatever the hell you have to do…”
“Level the place.”
“Do in Gaza what we did in Tokyo and Berlin”
Bye Lindsey. May you live an eternity in ruins for the ruins you helped create in Gaza. Ameen pic.twitter.com/e0htUMmLGi
— Dr. Omar Suleiman (@omarsuleiman) July 12, 2026

This was not a political critique; rather, it was the unmasking that revealed far more about Suleiman than it did about Graham.

Suleiman is no ordinary store front imam but is arguably America’s leading Islamic voice. This American-born Islamist is the president and co-founder of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research. On May 9, 2019, Suleiman delivered the opening prayer in the U.S. House of Representatives that spoke of “peace, not war” and “love, not hate.” It was a message that resonated with legislators who love to showcase just how tolerant they are.

Dismissed outright is Suleiman’s long documented pattern of radicalism that runs counter to the peaceful image he has tried so hard to cultivate. He is another paradigm of a public figure who speaks the language of compassion when the cameras are rolling and says something very different when they are not.

If this is the first time you are hearing about it, you can thank the elites who sit in a bubble at these dying news’ organizations.

Suleiman has praised Aidh al-Qarni, a Saudi cleric, who preaches how Christians and Jews are “enemies of Islam” and that their “throats must be slit and skulls must be shattered” and called al-Qarni “one of the greatest scholars and thinkers of the world.”

Suleiman continues to justify concubinage that is essentially sex slavery and argues how it “solved a real problem.” He supports Aafia Siddiqui, a convicted terrorist, who attempted to murder American military personnel while calling for a third intifada. If that is not enough Suleiman also meets with Muslim Brotherhood leaders banned from the United States and celebrated being named a top antisemitic influencer by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.

Such views are not compatible with the values of a society that believes and is founded on individual liberty and human dignity.

Speaking ill of the dead is not a political act; it is a moral one. Suleiman’s remarks about Sen. Graham were not merely indecent. They were revealing. They exposed the hollowness of his message of “love, not hate.” Apparently, those virtues are reserved only for people who share his political worldview.

When a proclaimed religious leader celebrates someone’s death, he is not offering analysis or criticism. He is glorifying hatred. That is corrosive in any society, but especially in one already strained by divisions. Our divisions have grown deeper and more dangerous than many Americans are willing to acknowledge.

That is why Suleiman’s diatribe deserves condemnation.

The episode stripped away Suleiman’s fake facade and revealed who he truly is.

As U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas observed on social media: “A U.S. Senator dies — and an Imam in Texas celebrates. We are at war — and only one side understands it.”

Whether one agrees with Roy’s choice of words or not, his broader point is difficult to dismiss: a society cannot long endure when hatred becomes a virtue and the death of a political opponent becomes a cause for celebration.

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