In a letter to Representative Allen West (R-FL), Baptist Joint Committee director Brent Walker and an interfaith collection of other religious leaders, pointed to several incidents in which he made used anti-Islamic rhetoric, inflammatory language, and painted all of its adherents with a broadly demeaning brush, and also called on him to apologize for remarks he made about one of his own colleagues.
In a recent interview with the “Shalom Show,” you underscored that your mission is to represent and uphold the values of your constituents; this is an unquestionably noble goal. However, your subsequent statement that Representative Keith Ellison, one of your colleagues in the House of Representatives, is the “antithesis of the principles on which this country was established” because he is Muslim, shows a frightening lack of understanding for these values.
Regardless of the specific “principles” you intended to reference, it is an indisputable fact that one of those principles is religious freedom for all, memorialized in the United States Constitution—including, of course, Article VI’s prohibition on any religious test for public office. Your remarks disrespect not only your Muslim colleagues in the Congress, but also all of your constituents of the Muslim faith. This is neither appropriate, nor true to the American values that you reference.
The Congressman responded with a letter defending his record – some of his best friends are Muslim! – as being not anti-Islam but anti-violent extremists, adding that he would "take your concerns to heart."
