(WASHINGTON, DC – 12/15/2023) The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned Senators Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley for their “Islamophobic and un-American” questioning of Muslim American attorney Adeel Mangi, who has been nominated to serve on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
During a Senate hearing on Mr. Mangi’s nomination, Senators Cruz, Cotton and Hawley questioned Mangi about numerous issues unrelated to him and judicial service, including the 9/11 attacks, the Oct. 7th attack in Israel, policy issues related to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and false claims of antisemitism.
President Biden nominated Mangi to serve on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals last month. If confirmed, he would be the first Muslim American to ever serve on an appeals court. Mangi currently works in private practice and is known for defending religious rights of American Muslim communities banned from constructing mosques.
SEE: Judiciary Republicans Prod Muslim Circuit Pick on Terrorism
SEE: Senate Judiciary Chair Rejects Attacks on Muslim Nominee
In a statement, CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:
“We strongly condemn Senators Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley for subjecting Mr. Mangi to irrelevant, hostile questions about Israel and Palestine. Singling out a Muslim judicial nominee and forcing him to answer ‘gotcha questions’ about the Middle East simply because of faith or because of his tangential connections to Muslims who comment on the Middle East is Islamophobic and un-American. So is raising the hateful trope that presumptively assumes that Muslims are antisemitic. All U.S. senators should reject this nonsense and start assessing Muslim American judicial nominees based on their expertise and qualifications, like all other nominees.”
Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin and Senator Corey Booker, who introduced Mangi, rebutted the line of questioning.
Senator Booker said, “I do know that Muslim Americans who have strong views of condemning anti-Semitism, condemning terrorism are often forced to answer questions like that over and over again. That in itself for so many Muslim Americans is insulting and unfortunate.”
Senator Durbin said, “Senate Judiciary Republicans reached a new low, hurling unfounded accusations of antisemitism at an historic Muslim-American judicial nominee today.”
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La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com