CAIR Press Releases

CAIR Calls President Trump’s Threat to Destroy Iranian Civilization ‘Unhinged, Racist and Genocidal’ 

Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization calls on Congress, presidential cabinet, and Pentagon to prevent genocidal attack on Iran

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned President Trump’s “unhinged, racist and genocidal” rhetoric and reiterated its call for Congress to reconvene and vote to end the war on Iran after the president posted a message online saying a “whole civilization will die tonight.”

CAIR also condemned Trump’s reference to the Iranians as “animals” in response to a reporter’s question.

The American Muslim civil rights organization also called on military leaders to obey their oath to the U.S. Constitution and refuse any unlawful orders to commit a genocide in Iran. 

In a statement, Washington, D.C., based CAIR and military veterans who serve in roles at CAIR, including CAIR-Michigan Director Dawud Walid (Veteran US Navy Personnelman Formerly Assigned to JAG) and CAIR-Florida Communications Director Wilfredo Ruiz (Veteran US Navy Reserve JAG Corps and Chaplain Corps) said:

“Declaring the Iranian people ‘animals’ and threatening to destroy their whole civilization is the sort of unhinged rhetoric we would expect from a racist, genocidal tyrant, not the President of the United States.

“Nothing in U.S. law, military law or international law would authorize the President to attempt to destroy another civilization by rendering their nation uninhabitable through indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure.

“President Trump must be prevented from committing a genocidal crime that would live in infamy, whether by Congress reconvening and voting to stop the war, the cabinet invoking the 25th amendment, or military leaders refusing unlawful orders to exterminate civilians. Refusing to take any action in the face of this open threat to commit genocide is complicity.”

CAIR made a similar call Sunday following President Trump’s inflammatory remarks this morning mocking the faith of Islam and announcing planned war crimes targeting Iranian civilian infrastructure.

Last week, CAIR said President Trump’s Threat to bomb Iran “Back to the stone ages” was “anti-Muslim, racist, and dehumanizing.”  

END

CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, [email protected]; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, [email protected]

Latest Press Releases