Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Despite his actions having been condemned by his fellow Arizona caucus member, Sen John McCain, and even the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, Arizona's Rep. Trent Franks has doubled-down on his religious bigotry McCarthyism. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Trent Franks defends request for probe of Muslim infiltration of government:
Rep. Trent Franks, R-Glendale, this week defended his call for an investigation into the influence of Muslim groups on government organizations, even as the proposal came under more fire.
[Last] Thursday, 42 religious and secular groups criticized Franks and four other House members who signed letters demanding the probe, saying the letters questioned “the loyalty of faithful Americans based on nothing more than their religious affiliations and … tenuous evidence of their associations.”
The groups ranged from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and American Baptist Churches USA, to the Hindu American Foundation and People for the American Way, to the Secular Coalition for America and American Atheists, among others.
Their criticism followed a Senate floor speech last week by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who said the letters’ focus on one top State Department official, Huma Abedin, “are nothing less than an unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable citizen.”
“These attacks on Huma have no logic, no basis, no merit. And they need to stop now,” McCain said.
[I]n a Tuesday statement, before the most recent criticism, [Franks] accused critics of engaging in “political correctness.”
“To collaborate in this administration’s political correctness and pretend that these issues are not real is to potentially put innocent lives at risk in the pursuit of preventing anyone from feeling uncomfortable,” Franks said in the statement.
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In his Tuesday statement, Franks said the letters were not targeting individuals, but rather the Muslim Brotherhood in general, a group that the letters said is dedicated to “‘destroying the Western civilization from within,’ a practice the Brothers call ‘civilization jihad.’”
“The evidence of the hostile nature of the Muslim Brotherhood is not in doubt in any reasonable mind,” Franks’ Tuesday statement said. “Consequently, in spite of the din of politically correct voices urging us all to look the other way, I cannot retreat one inch from pushing back on Muslim Brotherhood influence inside the United States Government.”
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Secular and religious organizations joined to write the letter because the issue affects more than just Muslims, said Lauren Anderson Youngblood, spokeswoman for the Secular Coalition for America.
“This is an issue that affects all Americans, religious and nonreligious,” she said. “When you have a group of lawmakers who are singling out minority religions, that’s a problem.”
Rep. Trent Franks has a Republican primary, with Tony Passalacqua and write-in candidate Helmuth Hack. In the general election there is Democratic candidate Gene Scharer, and Americans Elect candidate Stephen Dolgos. The voters of CD 8 have a moral obligation to get rid of this shameful bigot and embarrassment to Arizona. A fence post would be a better choice than Trent Franks.
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