Yesterday CAIR Texas sponsored its annual
Texas Muslim Capitol Day, featuring sessions on political activism and meetings with state representatives. According to the
Texas Tribune, participants visiting freshman representative Molly White's office received an unusual greeting. White was back in her district, but she left an Israeli flag on the reception desk in her office and instructed her staff to ask representatives from the Muslim community "to renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws." In her
Facebook posting announcing this, she added: "We will see how long they stay in my office."
CAIR responded by sending a letter (
full text) raising ethics questions to House Speaker Joe Straus, in part asking:
Has Rep. White violated any House rules in creating such an internal office policy that is selectively being enforced to discriminate against certain religious minorities trying to meet with her or her staff? Are House members prohibited from making constituents take oaths before meeting with their elected representatives or house staff?
Yesterday afternoon White issued a statement backing off somewhat from her earlier comments.
Protesters also interrupted the Muslim group's press conference at the Capitol yesterday. One grabbed the microphone and screamed: "Islam will never dominate the United States and by the grace of God, it will never dominate Texas." More than 420,000 Muslims live in Texas.
[Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]
