(WASHINGTON, D.C., 3/17/16) ñ The US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), a coalition of leading national and local American Muslim organizations, today called on GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to drop designated hate group leader Frank Gaffney Jr. as a foreign policy adviser.
Gaffneyís organization, the Center for Security Policy (CSP), has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Cruzís list of foreign policy advisers reportedly also includes three people who work for Gaffneyís organization, including Fred Fleitz, Clare Lopez and Jim Hanson. Also on Cruzís list is Andrew McCarthy, who has echoed Gaffneyís view that Muslims are seeking to impose Islamic law in America.
Cruz also named retired Lieutenant General William G. ìJerryî Boykin to his list of advisers. Boykin has in the past stated that ì[Islam] should not be protected under the First Amendment,î that there should be ìno mosques in Americaî and that there can be no interfaith dialogue or cooperation between Muslims and Christians.
ìTo appoint a notorious conspiracy theorist and hate group leader to such an important role in a presidential campaign sends the wrong message to American voters and to the international community,î said USCMO Secretary General Oussama Jammal. ìWe urge Senator Cruz to drop Frank Gaffney as a foreign policy adviser and to instead name a person who would base his or her advice on accurate information, not on fear-mongering.î
Of Gaffney, the SPLC notes:
ìGaffneyís wild-eyed accusations would certainly fit right into the red-baiting [House Un-American Activities Committee] tradition, judging from his long history of smears and innuendo aimed at Muslims. . . Among the ëenablersí of civilization jihad in America, President Obama is near the top of Gaffneyís list. But Gaffney has tried ñ and failed ñ to gather support for baseless suggestions that Obama is a practicing Muslim. . . Gaffneyís scurrilous broad-brush tactics have a serious effect on the lives of all Muslims in America, from students and housewives to corporate executives and budding politicians. A shadow of unfounded suspicion follows even the most upright Muslim citizens.î
MSNBCís Chris Matthews has referred to Gaffney as ìone of the countryís leading anti-Muslim conspiracy theorists.î
Gaffney is a key promoter of the bizarre conspiracy theory that Muslims in public service are infiltrating the government on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood.
He has questioned ìwhether Mr. Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States,î claimed the Missile Defense Agency logo is part of a ìworrying pattern of official U.S. submission to Islam,î claimed an aide to Hillary Clinton was a secret Muslim Brotherhood operative, was a key witness for the plaintiffs in a controversial lawsuit seeking to block construction of a Tennessee mosque, promoted the debunked claim that Dearborn, Mich., is a ìghetto enclave in which itís Muslim-only,î and hosted ìwhite supremacistî Jared Taylor on his ìSecure Freedomî radio program.
Gaffneyís staff attorney, David Yerushalmi, has advocated outlawing the practice of Islam in America and is the key promoter of anti-Islam bills in state legislatures nationwide, including one being voted on today by the Idaho legislature.
When leading GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump proposed a ban on all Muslims entering the United States, he quoted from a sham survey commissioned by Gaffneyís organization.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nationís largest Muslim civil rights organization and a member of USCMO, details Gaffneyís and the Center for Security Policyís role in Americaís Islamophobia network in its report, ìLegislating Fear: Islamophobia and its Impact in the United States,î and on its website, Islamophobia.org.
Source: The Islamic Circle of North America
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