The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on political and religious leaders in Alabama to repudiate Senator Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) latest racist, anti-Muslim comments, this time targeting Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
In a press conference called “radical Islam” a “cult that has taken over every second of every day” and said of Rep. Omar, “if people like [her] love this way of life back home, why don’t you just move the hell back?” Tuberville is a member of a newly-formed anti-Muslim caucus in Congress.
[NOTE: CAIR’s Alabama chapter repeatedly urged Sen. Turberville to visit a mosque in that state.]
SEE ALSO: A thriving Muslim school in Alabama looked to expand, but was met with Islamophobia – NPR
In a statement, CAIR said:
“Senator Tuberville’s remarks are openly racist, dangerously misleading and wholly unbefitting any elected official. Telling a Muslim member of Congress to ‘move the hell back’ echoes some of the ugliest chapters in our nation’s history and fuels hatred and intimidation against Muslims and immigrants nationwide. Alabama’s political and religious leaders must make clear that this kind of bigotry does not represent their values or the values of our country.”
In a recent commentary, CAIR Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor wrote:
“When Senator Tuberville talks about excluding Alabama Muslims from the constitutional rights guaranteed to all Alabamans, he sounds like a politician who studied George Wallace standing in a schoolhouse door and decided that Wallace’s problem wasn’t the bigotry, just the target.”
SEE: Senator Tuberville casts George Wallace’s shadow over Alabama Muslims: op-ed
Last month, CAIR welcomed Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen’s and Virginia Senator Time Kaine’s “principled” responses to an anti-Muslim social media post by Sen. Tuberville targeting Virginia Lt. Governor Ghazala Hashmi.
Washington, D.C., based CAIR recently added Sen. 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.
That marked the first time that CAIR has ever designated a U.S. senator as an anti-Muslim extremist.
SEE: CAIR’s Sen. Tommy Tuberville Profile
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CONTACT: A. Britton O’Shields, Staff Attorney – Alabama Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Alabama), aoshields@cair.com, 205-206-6399, 205-616-0733; CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@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