Loretta Lynch Stands Boldly with Muslims



Republican candidates are rushing to brand us all as terrorists. But Obama’s brave AG swung it hard in the other direction. Brava.

“The Muslim American community is expanding, which is beautiful.” I doubt you would ever hear these words uttered by a Republican governmental official anywhere. And we definitely know it’s not something you will hear from the 2016 GOP presidential candidates.

But those were the very words that United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch told the sold out crowd on Thursday night at the Muslim Advocates 10th anniversary dinner.

As the emcee of this event, I was excited to hear what the nation’s highest law enforcement official was going to say. I frankly expected to hear more along the lines of broad platitudes about hate is wrong, freedom of religion for all, etc. But that’s not what Lynch gave us.

Instead Lynch, while being interviewed by Muslims Advocates executive director Farhana Khera, offered passionate words that were truly moving. In a time when we have seen a spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes and increasingly hateful words directed at our community by numerous Republicans, most notably Donald Trump and Ben Carson, Lynch made it clear that we are not alone.

“My message to the Muslim community is that we stand with you in these times,” Lynch told the audience. Addressing the specific words of people like Trump and the online hate directed against Muslims, Lynch commented that the “greatest fear is this rhetoric will be accompanied by acts of violence.”

That point certainly resonated with the primarily but not exclusively Muslim audience. Since the Paris terrorist attacks, there has been a spike in hate crimes against Muslim Americans, with death threats, shots fired at a Connecticut mosque, and hateful graffiti sprayed on mosques in various states including Omaha and Nebraska.

But the violence and potential terror attacks against Muslim Americans didn’t start with the Paris attack. Thursday’s dinner was attended by the mother and brother of Deah Barakat, one of three young Muslims murdered in Chapel Hill, North Carolina last February by a man who hated all religions, but especially Muslims. As the autopsy report found, the killer held his gun to the head of two of three of his victims. This was not a dispute over a parking spot as some claimed, but a hate-fueled execution.

Also in the audience were representatives from a primarily Muslim community in upstate New York that was the target of a terrorist plot by Christian minister Robert Doggart. invoking his “commitment to our God,” Doggart had planed to slaughter Muslim Americans with an M-4 assualt rifle, armor piercing bullets, explosive devices and even a machete to cut “them to shreds.” Doggart’s trial is slated to begin next month in federal court.

And just in August, Glendon Scott Crawford was convicted in federal court for his terrorist plot to use a weapon of mass destruction to kill Muslims in New York. Crawford, a white supremacist Klan member, was motivated, per the indictment, to “kill the enemies of Israel.” (Of course, since these terrorists were not Muslim, the mainstream media ignores these cases.)



But Lynch went further than just speaking out against anti-Muslim hate. In stark contrast to Trump’s vow to close American mosques, Lynch made it clear that she will fight for the rights of American Muslims to “expand and build mosques.” She added that “the Department of Justice is there for you” to ensure Muslims have the same rights as Americans of other faiths to build houses of worship.

The Attorney General, who was introduced at the event by Representative Andre Carson, who is one of the two Muslim Americans serving in Congress, also touched on the Syrian refugee issue. She made it clear that while the safety of Americans is paramount, we can’t “rush to judgment” on closing the door to people in dire need. Lynch noted that the refugees will be thoroughly vetted before they are allowed to even step foot on U.S. soil.

As Lynch was offering us these beautiful words, I couldn’t help but to think how some conservatives would view them. Here was Lynch standing up for Muslim Americans while 75 percent of the GOP thinks Islam is “at odds” with American values. And even more startling is that 30 percent of Iowa Republicans believe Islam should be banned in America, and that number goes up to 36 percent of Trump supporters.


‘Anti-Muslim Rhetoric’ to be Prosecuted – US Attorney-General Loretta Lynch

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Thursday defended Muslims after the San Bernardino, California, shooting on Wednesday that killed 14 people and wounded 17 others, adding that federal officials would take action in case of anti muslim rhetoric and activity.



“When we see the potential for someone to lift, lifting that mantle of anti muslim rhetoric or as we saw after 9/11 violence directed at individuals who may not even be Muslims but may be perceived to be Muslims and they will suffer just as well, just as much, and when we see that we will take action,” -US Attorney-General Loretta Lynch.

Many community members said they were concerned about a backlash against the Muslim community in view of the rise of Islamic State and some opposition among politicians and the public in the United States over U.S. plans to accept Syrian war refugees.

The couple suspected of killing 14 people at a holiday party in California amassed thousands of rounds of ammunition and a dozen pipe bombs, authorities said on Thursday as they sought clues to the pair’s motives and whether they had links to Islamist militants.

Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27, were killed in a shootout with police five hours after Wednesday’s massacre at the Inland Regional Center social services agency in the city of San Bernardino, about 60 miles (100 km) east of Los Angeles.

Farook, a U.S. citizen born in Illinois, was the son of Pakistani immigrants, according to Hussam Ayloush, who heads the Los Angeles area chapter of the Muslim advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Malik, who had a 6-month-old daughter with Farook, was a Pakistani native living in Saudi Arabia when they married, Ayloush said.

The director of the Islamic Center of Riverside, a mosque Farook attended regularly for two years, described him as a devout Muslim who made the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia a few years ago and celebrated his wedding reception at the mosque.