Sheikh Zayed Mosque announces dismissal of famous imam

Abu Dhabi - Reasons for his dismissal were not mentioned.

Waseem Yousef has been dismissed as the imam and preacher at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. The well-known preacher and TV personality in the UAE recently took 19 people to court accusing them of publicly insulting and slandering him on Twitter. The trial is still ongoing.
On its Instagram account, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre announced: "From now on, Waseem Yousef is no longer an imam and preacher at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque."
An official of the centre on Saturday confirmed to Khaleej Times that Yousef has ceased to be an imam and preacher at the Grand Mosque with effect from Friday after the official announcement was issued. However, the reasons for his dismissal were not mentioned.
Khaleej Times had earlier reported that while dragging 19 people to court over "defamation", Yousef had claimed that he was bullied on social media by the defendants since June 2019.
The alleged insults followed the comments Yousef made about Sahih Al Bukhari, one of the six major collections of sayings and actions of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) which was compiled by Imam Mohammad Al Bukhari.
After noticing the many criticisms, some of which he considered "insulting and defaming", Yousef filed a lawsuit against the social media users under the online law.
Yousef previously said on Twitter that he at first endured the insults but the defendants continued to attack him repeatedly."I was very patient but they overdid it. They bullied me, used bad manners and insults," he said on Twitter. "I swear to God, I will not give up on my right ... and justice will stand between us."
During the last hearing at the Abu Dhabi Misdeamenour Court, five new lawyers presented their applications to the court as they volunteered to represent the accused, making the number of lawyers representing the 19 defendants go up to 24.
The next hearing in the case is on February 5.
ismail@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE
• Abu Dhabi