CAIR Georgia Calls on Sen. Johnny Isakson to Vote Against Anti-Muslim Extremist Mike Pompeo’s Nomination to Serve as Secretary of State

(ATLANTA, GA – 4/10/2018) The Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations today encouraged Sen. Johnny Isakson to vote against Mike Pompeo’s nomination to serve as Seceretary of State.

Isakson sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing for Pompeo on Thursday, April 12.

“Because anyone who expresses hateful views about his fellow Americans should not represent America on the global stage, we hope that Senator Isakson will join Senator Rand Paul and other committee members in voting against Mr. Pompeo’s nomination to serve as Secretary of State,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, executive director of CAIR Georgia.

In a letter hand-delivered to Sen. Isakson’s office in Washington, DC, Mitchell outlined Mr. Pompeo’s history of anti-Muslim bigotry.

Among other things, Mr. Pompeo has slandered the American Muslim community as “complicit” in terrorism,[1] attempted to turn an anti-Muslim conspiracy theory into government policy,[2] and described the fight against terrorist groups as a religious conflict between Muslims “who deeply believe that Islam is the way and the light and the only answer” and Christians who “know that Jesus Christ as our savior is truly the only solution for our world.”[3]

Mr. Pompeo has also supported hate groups like ACT for America, which held an armed anti-Islam protest in Piedmont Park last summer.[4] Mr. Pompeo even accepted an award from ACT founder Brigitte Gabriel, who has claimed that Arab Muslims “have no soul” and that “a practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Quran, cannot be a loyal citizen of the United States.”[5]

In 2015, Mr. Pompeo also publicly agreed with Frank Gaffney’s assertion that President Obama had “kind of an affinity for, if not the violent beheading and crucifixions and slaying of Christians and all that, but at least for the cause for which these guys are engaged in such activities.”[6]