Rabbi Who Denounced Temecula Mosque Runs for Senate

A rabbi who denounced a in Temecula will run for the U.S. Senate.

Nachum Shifren, of Los Angeles, will run to replace Diane Feinstein, he recently announced.

The rabbi, who described himself as “a staunchly conservative Republican,” lambasted the mosque plan and Mahmoud Harmoush, the imam of the Islamic Center of Temecula Valley, during a meeting at the in January.

See a photo slideshow of the meeting by

He accused the imam of refusing to repudiate Hamas, the government of the Gaza strip which the U.S. labeled a terrorist organization.

He referred to a televised interview Harmoush did on MSNBC when a conservative commentator asked him to renounce Hamas, and he replied commenting on politics was not his place as a religious leader.

Read more about the imam and the Temecula Muslim community by .

“Do you want a mosque leader in your community that supports what the United States of America has determined to be a terrorist organization?” he asked the crowd.

Somebody in the crowd yelled, “That’s not the issue.”

“That’s exactly the issue. It has nothing to do with parking, it has nothing to do with flood plains,” the rabbi shouted over Mayor Ron Roberts, who told him several times his time to talk was over.

During the meeting before Shifren stepped to the podium, numerous Jews announced their support for the mosque, saying Muslims should have as much religious freedom as everybody else.

Shifren verbally attacked those speakers. “I’m a biblical scholar, and I’m ashamed of the Jewish people you heard here tonight.”

One person in the crowd who said she was a member of a Jewish group, shouted, “We’re ashamed of you,” to which he replied, “Oh, I feel so bad about it.”