A decorated Cleveland police officer is under investigation for resurfaced anti-Semitic tweets following being honored last year by the police department.
According to Canary Mission, Ismail Quran was awarded the 2019 Officer of the Year Award and the distinguished service medal last November at the Cleveland Division of Police Awards.
In 2019, a year after Quran joined the department, Canary Mission exposed his tweets that glorify Hitler, spread anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories, and express his disdain for Israel and Zionists. According to their investigation, in 2017, Quran was also a member of a closed Facebook group that honored Osama Bin Laden.
In a tweet from July 2014, Quran shared an image of Hitler with the text, “Let me salute to Hitler the great” and he said “i would have killed all the jews [sic] of the world, but I kept some to show the world why I killed them.’”
Shortly after, he tweeted the photo again, claiming, “I don’t salute this man, but what is happening to us, is what happened to the Jews by Hitler.” A few days later, he tweeted, “**** THE ZIONIST JEWS!!!!!!!!!!!! ***** *** ***** *******.”
In February 2015, he pushed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, claiming “ISIS = Israeli Secret Intelligence Unit,” adding, “[w]ho does Israel get support from? The U.S. #Aliens lol #InsideJob #OpenYourEyes.” A few weeks later, he tweeted that “Jews run the world.”
Canary Mission claims that all tweets came after he completed his first Police Officer Physical Agility Exam.
“It was already a cause for concern that the Cleveland Police Department continued to employ an officer with a record of anti-Semitic hate speech,” Canary Mission said in a statement. “However, we are shocked and dismayed to discover that the Cleveland Police Department honored Quran.”
“We urge swift action by Mayor Justin Bibb, Interim Chief of Police Dornat Drummond and the Cleveland Community Police Commission to remove such a dangerous anti-Semite from his duty,” added the statement.
‘Extreme nature of the posts’
In a video of the award ceremony on the department’s Facebook page, the presenter described Quran as a “gifted communicator bringing calm understanding to situations when he responds” and “has truly embodied the community policing philosophy for the Cleveland division of police.”
They claimed his bilingual abilities made him an “invaluable resource for other members of the division.”
His tweets were posted under the Twitter handle @ish_1988, which has since been deleted.
Canary Mission says it was able to identify Quran’s account on Twitter because his display photo on Twitter was the same as his Facebook and Instagram accounts, which used his real name.
Sarah Johnson, a spokesperson for the city, acknowledged the tweet in a statement to JNS, calling them inappropriate and adding that the “matter has been referred to the Cleveland Division of Police Internal Affairs Unit for thorough investigation.”
“The Cleveland Division of Police insists that officers provide the highest levels of professionalism and respect to all citizens. Discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated,” she said.
Cleveland Police Union president Jeff Follmer brushed off the comments, claiming that some of the tweets are “from over a decade ago.”
“He is an amazing police officer. Ismail was policeman of the year in 2019 and assisted in many investigations. He is an asset to the Cleveland community that he serves,” Follmer said to Fox 8.
In response, Canary Mission said that despite the age of the tweets, they are still relevant because of the “extreme nature of the posts and his extreme hatred of Jews.”
“Quran tweeted many of these hateful posts after he had already begun his police training,” Canary Mission said. “And the fact he is an active police officer is very alarming.”
They added that the posts were still live until they were exposed two weeks ago, when they resurfaced.
James Pasch, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in Cleveland, told the Cleveland Jewish News that if “the allegations are accurate, we would expect the Cleveland Police Department to handle those allegations appropriately. And at ADL, we’ll also look into the online statements.”
Quran, who is still employed by the department while undergoing the investigation, has been assigned to administrative duties. JNS
No no no. That doesn’t fit the narrative. Every police officer and first responders are HEROS! They are role models that we should look up to. We must invite them to come into our Yeshivos and to come to our mosdos dinners.
Ismail Quran would do something like that?? I am utterly shocked!!