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Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 15, 2003
1:50 PM
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CONTACT:
Council
on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
CAIR-LA, Hussam Ayloush, 714-776-1847
CAIR-NCA, Helal Omeira, 408-476-7843
CAIR-Sacramento, Rashid Ahmad, 916-825-0027;
Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or cair@cair-net.org;
Ms. Hodan Hassan, 202-488-8787 or hhassan@cair-net.org
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Calif. GOP Asked to Repudiate Anti-Islam Remarks:
Former State Party Chairman Says 'Disease of Islam Must be Rectified'
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ANGELES, CA - April 15 - The California office of the Council
on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA) today called on GOP leaders
to repudiate recent Islamophobic remarks made by the former chairman
of that state's Republican Party.
At a pro-war
rally on Friday sponsored by the University of Southern California
(USC) College Republicans, Shawn Steel said: "The Islamic community
has a cancer growing inside it, which hates Jews, hates freedom
and hates western society...The disease of Islam must be rectified.
It's kill or be killed." He also blamed peace activists and the
Democratic Party for the Holocaust, the Ku Klux Klan and slavery.
During an April 8 rally at Loyola Marymount University, Steel
referred to Islam as a "dangerous" and "diseased religion."
SEE: "TROOP-SUPPORT
RALLY LOSES OBJECTIVE" http://www.dailytrojan.com/article.do?issue=/V148/N54&id=02-troop.54c.html
"COLLEGE REPUBLICANS HOLD PRO-TROOP RALLY" http://loyolan.lmu.edu/Headlines/story1.html
"The Republican
Party can no longer remain silent in the face of the anti-Muslim
bigotry spewed by a minority of hate-mongers within its ranks.
Republican leaders and elected officials must repudiate this latest
smear of Islam and reassure Muslims in California that Steel's
Islamophobic views do not reflect those of the party. Such incidents
can only serve to divide our nation along religious lines, increase
discrimination against ordinary Muslims and harm America's image
worldwide," said CAIR-Southern California Executive Director Hussam
Ayloush. He added that other Republicans officials have recently
been involved in similar incidents around the nation.
Last month,
two Republican lawmakers staged a walkout during a Muslim prayer
opening a session of the Washington State House of Representatives.
One of those who left the floor said she refused to listen to
the Muslim prayer because it was "an issue of patriotism." That
legislator later apologized for her remarks and said she would
accept an invitation to visit a local Islamic center.
In January,
CAIR urged Republican leaders to repudiate anti-Islam paraphernalia
being sold at a right-wing conference kicked off by Vice President
Cheney. That request came after it was learned that bumper stickers
with text such as, "No Muslims -- No Terrorism," were being sold
from exhibition booths at the 30th annual Conservative Political
Action Conference in Washington, D.C. Another sticker offered
for sale at the conference replaced the letter "s" in "Islam"
with a Nazi swastika.
In December
of last year, public pressure forced a Republican group in North
Carolina to remove a link to anti-Islam rhetoric from its website
and apologize to Muslims in that state. The website of the Greensboro-based
Guilford County Republican Party had a link to a site called "Islam
Exposed" that stated: "This website was designed with 1 (sic)
objective in mind - to expose one of the greatest evils on our
planet - Islam."
CAIR is America's
largest Islamic civil liberties group. It is headquartered in
Washington, D.C., and has 16 regional offices nationwide and in
Canada. Since its founding in 1994, CAIR has defended the civil
and religious rights of all Americans.
###
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