Saudi Preacher Makes Bizarre Claim About the Discovery of America

A Saudi preacher said that Muslims were already in America before Christopher Columbus ever sailed there.

Speaking at the Sa'eed bin Jubair Mosque in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, Imam Issa Assiri said of the discovery of America: “The truth is that Columbus knew about the ‘new world’ even before he set sail. He also knew that there were Muslims there.”

The preacher contended that Columbus’ mission to America was all part of a war against Islam.

“He received a personal commission to sail to America from a Crusader queen [Isabella] who hated Islam and the Muslims,” Assiri said, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute. “That was before this hateful crusader turned to the American continent, in order to fight the Muslims there. The Muslims were there before Columbus and all the others.”

Saudi Imam Issa Assiri said Muslims were in America before Columbus (Image source: MEMRI)

In one of his sermons, the imam also suggested that Christians and Jews understand only violence.

“When they faced death [by violence] … this is the language these Jewish and Christian infidels understand. This is the only language they understand. [After the attacks in France] they changed their policy,” Assiri said.

The imam said those who curse or mock the Prophet Muhammad, even if only in jest, “must be killed, even if he repents.”

The videos of Assiri’s speeches were posted online earlier this month and were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in November made the claim that Muslims discovered America in the 12th century, nearly three centuries before Christopher Columbus set foot there.

Here is the video of the sermon excerpts, courtesy of MEMRI: