DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – An Islamic leader in Dearborn Heights called the U.S. military operation against Iran “evil” and said it was an “illegal war.”

Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi of the Islamic House of Wisdom made his comments during an event to “honor” Ayatollah Khamenei after he was killed by U.S. strikes against Iran over the weekend, according to Fox News.

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“You promised that America First, and now we ended up to have Netanyahu first,” Elahi told a group, according to Fox News. “Now we realize that all their talk about nuclear [unintelligible] was a joke, it didn’t even exist. From the beginning talking about regime change, we want to change, because we don’t like it. So, starting an illegal – illegal war – and then go and bomb the house of the leader of the country. Where is justification for this? Where is their reason for this, at all?”

In 2022, Susannah Johnson wrote in Focus on Western Islamism, “Elahi appears to be leading a double life — maintaining lengthy friendships with Iranian leadership and promoting hardline Islamist thought, while at the same time promoting himself as a loving member of his Dearborn Heights community.”

The Middle East Forum has a photo of him talking with Kamala Harris; the Jewish News Syndicate criticized Democrats for working with Elahi.

“What arguably constitutes the most problematic aspect of Imam Elahi’s persona is his explicit and continuous support for Hezbollah,” the George Washington University Program on Extremism reported in 2024.

Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.