A North Miami dentist who is also an imam at a local mosque should have his license suspended for antisemitic statements that call for violence upon Jews, according to Rep. Randy Fine.
Fine, a Brevard County Republican and the only Jewish Republican in the Legislature, wrote a letter to the Florida Board of Dentistry, asking members to suspend the license of Fadi Kablawi.
"Practicing medicine in Florida is a privilege — not a right — and as the Chairman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, I call on you to immediately suspend Dr. Kablawi's license and commence a thorough investigation of his practice," Fine wrote to Jose Mellado, Chair of the Board of Dentistry.
In the letter, Fine cited several instances of Kablawi making antisemitic statements in his preachings, all of which came after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel, in which more than 1,400 were killed and more than 200 civilians were taken hostage.
Those comments included referring to Jews as "the brothers of apes and pigs" during an April 26 sermon. "Oh Allah, annihilate the tyrannical Jews," Fine quoted Kablawi as saying. In clips of the sermon circulating on social media Kablawi says the Israeli army is "worse than the Nazis," and suggests that Jewish people are harvesting the organs of Palestinian children.
Kablawi has had at least one prior run-in with the law. In 2017, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi's Medicaid Fraud Unit accused him of defrauding the federal program by charging patients the full amount for some procedures while also billing Medicaid. The result of those charges is unclear.
The Board of Dentistry meets four times a year. Its next meeting is scheduled for Friday in Jacksonville, but Kablawi's license doesn't appear to be on the agenda.
Fine implored the Board to take action because he doesn't believe Jewish patients would be safe in Kablawi's practice. Indeed, Fine ended his letter by stating, "the lives of some of Florida's Jews could hang in the balance."
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