Massachusetts Bill Privileges Muslims as Virginia Muslim Official Uses Taxpayer Billions for ‘Muslim Power’

“Islam must dominate, and not be dominated,” said Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the old jihadi would be mighty pleased by recent developments in Massachusetts and Virginia. In line with the fact that Islamic texts and teachings frequently exhort Muslims to subjugate Infidels (cf. Qur’an 9:29), and never envisions the two living as equals under a secular law, in both states Muslims are working toward achieving a privileged position that other groups do not enjoy. There will be much more of this to come.

Focus On Western Islamism (FWI) reported Wednesday “the Massachusetts state legislature is considering a bill that would promote and privilege the participation of Muslims in state politics.” That seems innocuous enough on its face, but actually this bill would require the state to do for Muslims what it does for no other group. The bill, which is entitled “An Act promoting the civil rights and inclusion of American Muslims in the commonwealth,” would “establish a commission charged with promoting the participation of Muslims in the governance of the state.” This commission would “identify and recommend qualified American Muslims for appointive positions at all levels of government, including boards and commissions, as the commission considers necessary and appropriate.” No such commissions exist for Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists or anyone else. Hassan al-Banna would be delighted.

In Virginia, meanwhile, we see what can happen when Muslims take positions in government in the United States. According to Fox News, Fairfax, Virginia, school board member Abrar Omeish, a Sharia-observant, hijab-wearing Muslima, “shared plans to use $3 billion available in the district’s budget for a Palestinian agenda before she was elected.” At a 2019 event in support of the “Palestinian” jihad against Israel, Omeish said: “So, the Fairfax County School Board manages who knows how much money?… The Fairfax County School Board manages three billion dollars. That’s just one school board in Northern Virginia. That is over half of the Fairfax County budget, OK? We’re talking big money, and this gets funneled, the school board entirely makes the decisions on this.” She added: “And wallahi [swear to Allah], I cannot tell you how many times people talk…about the Muslim power. ‘Oh, Abrar’s got a community.’ ‘Abrar’s going to bring in all these people for the Democrats.’ Why? Because they saw us show up… and now we’re making decisions.” Decisions in service of the global jihad, not of Americans.

That’s the sort of thing the Leftists in Massachusetts apparently want, but like so much else these days, it bears no resemblance to the republic as the Founding Fathers envisioned it. And there are other problems as well. FWI notes that the executive director of the Massachusetts chapter of the the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, “posted a celebratory tweet about the introduction of the bill.” It shows Amatul-Wadud standing next to one of the sponsors of the bill, Massachusetts State Senator James B. Eldridge (D-Islamopandering), despite the fact Amatul-Wadud has served as the lawyer for Muslims of America (MOA), “which has sent its members to Pakistan for extremist indoctrination and military training.” Amatul-Wadud has also “promoted the conspiracy theories put forth by MOA’s founder, Pakistani cleric Mubarak Ali Gilani,” retweeting an article in which “claims that the terror group ISIS (and indeed, Wahhabism itself) is a creation of British intelligence, that 9/11 was an inside job, that WTC-7 was destroyed by controlled demolition, and that America was manipulated into fighting Nazi Germany and Saddam Hussein for the benefit of the Jews.” Of course! In such circles, Islamic antisemitism is never far beneath the surface.

Steve Resnicoff, director of DePaul College of Law Center for Jewish Law and Judaic Studies, called the Massachusetts bill “an unprecedented and unconstitutional effort to promote one religion, Islam, over all others,” and said that “it would clearly violate the principle of separation of church and state,” as it “calls for the creation of a government entity that would broadly endeavor to benefit the interests of Muslims.”

Massachusetts attorney Karen Hurvitz agrees with Resnicoff: “The proposed legislation seeking to aid Islam is unconstitutional on its face….Perhaps the proponents of this legislation are unaware of the First Amendment or its history. Perhaps they are used to the 26 countries where Islam is the official religion and where practice of other religions is not permitted. That is not the United States.”

Not yet, anyway.