Muslim civil rights and advocacy group notes this is the first time it has ever added a U.S. senator to its list of extremists
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today added Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville to its list of anti-Muslim extremists in the United States in the wake of his increasingly hateful and dangerous attacks on Alabama Muslims, including his recent targeting of Alabama Muslim K-12 school children.
This marks the first time that CAIR has ever designated a U.S. senator as an anti-Muslim extremist.
SEE: CAIR’s Sen. Tommy Tuberville Profile
“Senator Tuberville appears to have looked at footage of George Wallace standing in a schoolhouse door to keep Black students out and decided that was a model worth reviving—this time against Muslims,” said CAIR Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor. “His rhetoric belongs to the same shameful chapter of American history, and it will be taught that way.”
CAIR’s designation comes in the wake of Tuberville openly celebrating the campaign of anti-Muslim hate that led a K-12 Islamic private school to cancel its planned relocation to Hoover, Alabama, amid safety concerns. Tuberville also flatly declared on Dec. 14 that Islam is not a religion.
In its profile of Sen. Tuberville on Islamophobia.org, CAIR’s research and advocacy team writes, in part:
“The first reported episodes of Tuberville making explicitly anti-Muslim statements date to June 2025 and afterward. At the time of writing this analysis, CAIR researchers could locate no public statements critical of Islam or Muslims prior to June 2025.
“Like many anti-Muslim public figures, Tuberville claims “Islam is not a religion. It is a cult.” This is a common tactic intended to deprive Muslims of the First Amendment protections. He also places his concerns in a counter-terrorism frame—declaring “we are at war” with people “coming here from Muslim countries” to justify blanket measures against Muslims. Tuberville repeatedly uses Sharia as a term to frighten voters and vilify all Muslims and believes Muslims “are getting ready to take over New York.” He has repeated conspiracy theories about Muslim only neighborhoods in Europe and that Islam enjoins perpetual war on its followers.”
SEE ALSO: CAIR-Alabama Calls Sen. Tuberville’s Anti-Sharia Bill ‘Unconstitutional Attack on Religious Freedom’
Following the horrific attack in Bondi Beach Australia CAIR joined Australian Muslims in denouncing the deadly attack on the Jewish community in that nation and commended a Muslim “hero” for acting to disarm one of the attackers.
On his X (formerly Twitter) account Tuberville declared, “ “Islam is not a religion. It is a cult.”
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com