The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a prominent part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, has issued a statement asking GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani to reconsider his acceptance of the endorsement of a controversial televangelist Pat Robertson. According to the statement:
On his “700 Club” program, Robertson has repeatedly defamed Islam and Muslims. He called Muslims “satanic,” claimed the Quran, Islam’s revealed text, is “fraudulent” and said Islam is “a monumental scam.” Robertson also called the Prophet Muhammad “an absolute wild-eyed fanatic, a robber and a brigand…a killer” and said the goal of Islam is “world domination.” He called Islam the “religion of the slavers,” claimed Americans who convert to Islam exhibit “insanity” and said he would be wary of appointing Muslims to positions in the U.S. government, including judgeships. In announcing his endorsement of Giuliani, Robertson referred to the “bloodlust of Islamic terrorists.” “It is truly disturbing that a presidential candidate of any party would accept the endorsement and seek the advice of a person with such a clear record of anti-Muslim bigotry,” said CAIR National Legislative Director Corey Saylor.
Previous posts have noted that CAIR has called on Guiliani to drop Islamist critic Daniel Pipes as an advisor and issued an “Action Alert” calling on its supporters to contact the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee “to express your concerns about his promotion of linking the faith of Islam to terrorism.” Giuliani has also appointed Martin Kramer, a well known academic and strong critic of Islamism, as a member of his foreign-policy team which may also have helped to provoke CAIR’s actions.