‘High priest of antisemitic Christianity’ comes to Pittsburgh, meets with local politicians
While in town, Isaac met with Rep. Summer Lee, whom he referred to on Facebook as “a strong advocate for Palestine and a ceasefire in Gaza,” and Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey.
Rev. Munther Isaac — a Palestinian Christian pastor who gave a sermon on Oct. 8 preaching that Hamas’ deadly attack the previous day was a logical outcome of the creation of the state of Israel — came to Pittsburgh earlier this month to speak at the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh and the Bidwell Presbyterian Church.
The Aug. 1 events were hosted by Friends of Sabeel North America, a group criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for being behind various anti-Israel boycott campaigns in the United States. FOSNA’s website calls for the end of “Israeli occupation of Palestine” and an end to “U.S. policies that support and perpetuate the occupation.”
While in town, Isaac met Rep. Summer Lee, whom he referred to on Facebook as “a strong advocate for Palestine and a ceasefire in Gaza,” and Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey.
Isaac posted photos of himself with Lee and Gainey on various social media platforms, as did FOSNA.
Neither Lee nor Gainey responded to the Chronicle’s requests for comment.
Isaac posts frequently on X (formerly Twitter), accusing Israel of “genocide” and “colonialism.”
In his Oct. 8 sermon, Isaac said: “What is happening is an embodiment of the injustice that has befallen us as Palestinians from the Nakba until now. Frankly, anyone following the events was not surprised by what happened yesterday … One of the scenes that left an impression on my mind yesterday, and there are many scenes, is the scene of the Israeli youth who were celebrating a concert in the open air [the Nova music festival] just outside the borders of Gaza, and how they escaped. What a great contradiction, between the besieged poor on the one hand, and the wealthy people celebrating as if there was nothing behind the wall. Gaza exposes the hypocrisy of the world.”
On Christmas Eve, Isaac, the pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem in the West Bank, said in a sermon that “if Jesus were to be born today, he would be born under the rubble in Gaza.”
Rev. Johnnie Moore, president of the Congress of Christian Leaders, told Jewish Insider that “those of us who track these things know that Munther Isaac has long been the high priest of antisemitic Christianity; sadly, he spreads his hate from the city of Jesus’ birth.”
“Since Oct. 7,” Moore added, “Isaac seems to have graduated from being an anti-Zionist Lutheran preacher to a terror sympathizer. There’s really just no other way to describe him.”
Isaac not only was promoted by FOSNA on an eight-city U.S. speaking tour this summer. He was also given a platform by right-wing talk show host Tucker Carlson, whom the Anti-Defamation League and others have accused of spewing antisemitic, homophobic and racist hate.
Carlson hosted Isaac in April for a 40-minute interview on X, asking Isaac about how the government of Israel treats Christians.
Carlson was criticized in the National Review for his rhetoric since Oct. 7 and for being “at the forefront of a loose campaign of social-media influencers trying to convince Christians to abandon their support for Israel.”
“He took things to a new level this week,” the National Review reported, “by turning to Isaac for answers, and claiming, ‘If you wake up in the morning and decide that your Christian faith requires you to support a foreign government blowing up churches and killing Christians, I think you’ve lost the thread.’”
Jonathan Elkhoury, a Christian Lebanese refugee granted Israeli citizenship, told Jewish Insider that he was “‘appalled and ashamed’ at Carlson’s choice to invite Isaac onto his show, preferring ‘rhetoric of lies and misinformation about Israel or its treatment of minorities’ rather than ‘a voice that speaks about Christian life in the Holy Land.’”
“Tucker Carlson should have taken his platform more seriously, and not invite political activists, in the disguise of a religious robe, to support the ongoing dehumanization of Israelis and the denial of the right of Israel to exist,” Elkhoury said. PJC
Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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