The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today commended the bipartisan defense of religious liberty mounted during the House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing‘s anti-Muslim hearing meant to hype the “sharia hoax” that anti-Muslim politicians have been pushing in recent months.
During the hearing, witnesses with a history of expressing anti-Muslim bigotry and conspiracy theories called for an unconstitutional ban on the practice of Islam in America.
CAIR notes that the hearing room itself was nearly empty, with only a small number of attendees present, many of whom were members of the Muslim and Jewish communities who came to oppose the hearing’s premise.
During the hearing, Ranking Subcommittee Member Representatives Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), Ranking Judiciary Committee Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and Tom McClintock (R-CA), among others, underscored that the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land, protects religious freedom for all Americans, and prevents any community from imposing their faith on others.
READ: Rep. Scanlon’s Opening Statement
READ: Rep. Jamie Raskin’s Opening Statement
CAIR also commended Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University Ilya Somin, whose testimony reaffirmed the supremacy of the U.S. Constitution and warned of the constitutional dangers inherent in singling out one religion for legislative action.
In a statement, CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert S. McCaw, who attended the hearing in person and formally submitted CAIR’s statement for the record, said:
“We commend Representatives Scanlon, Raskin, and McClintock, as well as Professor Somin, for standing up for the Constitution and making clear that religious liberty applies to Muslim Americans just as it does to every other faith community. Their bipartisan defense of the First Amendment was principled and necessary.
“We must be honest about what this hearing represents. Rep. Roy’s so-called anti-Sharia caucus is, in effect, an anti-Muslim hate group dedicated to expelling or even exterminating mainstream Muslims. When lawmakers build a political movement around branding Islam incompatible with the Constitution and the American way of life, they are not debating policy during this hearing, they are laying the groundwork to criminalize, expel, or erase Muslim Americans for practicing our faith and living by our religious principles.
“History teaches us that campaigns of persecution do not begin with mass violence. In Nazi Germany, Jewish citizens were first branded as incompatible with the nation’s laws and identity. They were portrayed as a civilizational threat, unfit to belong. That rhetoric normalized exclusion and discrimination long before it enabled atrocity.
“When elected officials like Rep. Roy and members of his Exterminate Muslim caucus question whether American Muslims are compatible with the Constitution, we recognize that pattern. Religious freedom is not conditional, and Muslim Americans are not strangers to our own Constitution.”
The hearing was convened by Subcommittee ChairChip Roy (R-TX) and was framed around the premise that “Sharia-based institutions” pose a threat to American law. However, witnesses were unable to identify concrete examples of any systemic effort to override the Constitution.
Prior to the hearing, CAIR provided preparatory briefing materials to members of the House Judiciary Committee, released a memorandum documenting the history of anti-Muslim rhetoric expressed by several invited witnesses, submitted an official statement for the hearing record, and distributed an educational fact sheet explaining how Sharia functions in American life within the bounds of U.S. law.
SEE: CAIR Letter to House Subcommittee Rebutting Sharia Hoax
SEE: Read CAIR’s Congressional Briefing Memo on Anit-Muslim Witnesses
SEE: CAIR’s Educational Fact Sheet on “Sharia in American Life”
ABOUT THE HEARING’S REPUBLICAN PICKED ANTI-MUSLIM WITNESSES
Scheduled witnesses at the hearing included Stephen Gelé, who, according to the New York Times, represented a nonprofit organization that promoted legislation by notorious anti-Muslim bigot David Yerushalmi that would have made “adherence to Islam” a “felony punishable by 20 years in prison.” Gelé was also reportedly involved in a previous effort to promote anti-Islam laws in states nationwide.
Another witness, Robert Spencer, was once a key leader in the anti-Islam hate movement in the United States. In 2013, Spencer was banned from entering the United Kingdom because his views “foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence.” His recommended reading list has included racist books such as Jean Raspail’s 1973 “Camp of the Saints,” which depicts France being overrun by non-white immigrants from India.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) labeled Spencer an “anti-Muslim extremist.” The SPLC labeled Spencer as part of the “Anti-Muslim Inner Circle,” a core group of 10 individuals responsible for the “surge in popular anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States.”
Another hearing witness is Krista Schild of the RAIR Foundation, which the SPLC identified as part of a broader network of anti-Muslim hate groups that promote conspiracy theories and vilify American Muslim communities. CAIR’s Islamophobia project has also documented RAIR Foundation as having been accused of spreading Islamophobic and antisemitic hate and aligning itself with known-white supremacist groups and individuals since at least 2013.
2019: The network behind state bills ‘countering’ Sharia law and terrorism
Anti-Muslim bigots have recently revived a decades-old manufactured “anti-sharia” hysteria designed to frighten voters into backing Islamophobic candidates and political leaders.
2011: What’s behind nationwide anti-Shariah push?
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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