A Tennessee man, William Coley, makes history as the first Muslim Vice Presidential nominee. Coley, a libertarian activist and the national director of Muslims4Liberty, an American Muslim organization ‘committed to advancing the cause of liberty from a principled and Islamic perspective’, has agreed to be the running mate of Libertarian Party presidential candidate Darryl W. Perry.
Perry is one of 15 candidates seeking the Libertarian nomination for U.S. president. He and Coley will be making several campaign appearances in the run-up to the party’s nominating convention, which will be held May 26-30 in Orlando, FL.
According to a press release, Perry chose Coley as his running mate because “he has intimate knowledge and insight both of the religion, and the cultures of the countries (the U.S. military) has been actively bombing or occupying,”
The Libertarian Party is the country’s third-largest political party since its founding in 1971. “If you have not previously considered the Libertarian Party, I encourage you to do so now. We are an extremely diverse group of people who are passionate about liberty…about all rights, of all people, all the time. We do not denigrate or disparage any group. We respect the humanity of all people and their rights to make their own decisions about their lives. Simply put: Libertarianism is the idea that every person has the right to pursue happiness in any way they wish as long as it doesn’t hurt people or take their stuff,” wrote Nicholas Sarwark, Chairman of the Libertarian National Committee, in an open letter, trying to woo disgruntled Muslim Republicans and inviting them to join his party.
Coley became a political activist after he attended a Smoky Mountains Tea Party Patriots meeting in 2011 in which Bill French, a self-taught expert on “political Islam,” claimed that Islamic law was gaining ground in Tennessee.
He lives in Maryville, TN with his wife and seven children. He is completing his Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) and Islamic studies training in the Maliki school through a WebCT program in Qatar.
A Facebook page has been set up to promote the Coley campaign.
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