A Republican Oklahoma lawmaker and his state party chairman would like you to know that all Muslims want to enslave or kill you. I would like you to know just how far below grade level these patriotic statesmen’s reading, writing and speaking abilities are.
The whole kerfuffle started Monday when Rep. John Bennett shared a link on his Facebook to “Sharia Unveiled,” along with a personal note straight out of a fifth-grade book report:
(For the record: “Islam” is a noun; “Muslim” may be used as a noun or an adjective; the adage is “one and the same.”)
Bennett’s opinion didn’t sit well with the Council on American Islamic Relations, which protested. “Anti-Muslim bigotry and statements that promote misunderstanding and incite hatred toward a minority group have no place in the Oklahoma Republican Party,” the group’s leader, Adam Soltani, wrote in a letter to Bennett.
Clearly, Soltani doesn’t know the Oklahoma Republican Party:
Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Dave Weston supported Bennett’s remarks.
“It seems as if their attack on his comments is disingenuous at best,” Weston said. “Here’s why. If we as Americans were ruled by Islam, then Christians and Jews like you and I could only keep practicing our faith if we paid a protection tax. But if you’re Christian or Jewish and don’t immediately convert to Islam, they imminently decapitate you. This is proven by ongoing observation around the world today.”
“If they’re legitimate in wanting to come to the table and have an honest discourse, they can prove that by acknowledging the Jewish Holocaust happened…”
Emphasis added, just to remind you that “they imminently decapitate you” is a phrase that makes no sense here, in a sentence that makes no sense, in a paragraph that makes no sense. The characterization of all Muslims as proselytizing subjugators and killers is so factually stupid that Oklahoma’s GOP chairman disagrees here with former top-ranking Republican George W. Bush, who even at the height of his overseas adventures acknowledged that “Islam is peace” and “the face of terror is not the true faith of Islam.”
(CAIR, for what it’s worth, has long and often condemned the Holocaust and criticized deniers of “the immense human suffering caused by the murder of millions of Jews and other minority groups by the Nazi regime and its allies during World War II.”)
Bennett, too, is doubling down on his Islamophobic blather; according to TPM, he wrote in a (now-protected) Facebook update:
So the Council on American-Islamic Relations is reading my Facebook and demanding an apology for what I said…. well, since your monitoring my facebook… I WILL NOT apologize to you. I know who you are and what you represent and I’m watching you closely….
Here are three things Bennett evidently has no clue about: who Muslims are; what they represent; and the correct use of “your” and “you’re.” In other words, he’s got a bright future in Oklahoma Republican politics.