#unmitigatedstupidity | #WhatTheyVotedFor
Heads or tails? To the one, this is #WhatTheyVotedFor.
Jeff Baumann, a notorious anti-Muslim activist in Minnesota’s Senate District 36, also urged in the resolution that “no Islamic leader, religious or otherwise, shall ever be allowed to deliver the invocation at any Republican convention or event.”
The resolution further called for “legislation, policies, and educational programs [to] be implemented… so as to evermore minimize and eliminate the influence of Islam within Minnesota, including Minnesota schools.”
Baumann presented the resolution at a caucus meeting in Coon Rapids, a suburb of Minneapolis. It’s unclear whether the resolution will pass there, but it appears to have failed in other districts, according to Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the local Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
To the other, they apparently want to vote again, y’know, on something—anything—and the otherwise impossible stupidity of the prospect becomes worrisome because these are, after all, Republicans.
His resolution comes at a moment of acute prejudice against Muslims in the North Star State. Recently, two Republican state lawmakers and a local GOP official in Minnesota came under fire for reportedly sharing a Facebook post that accused Muslims of preparing to “infiltrate” the party’s caucuses, after a group of Muslims had attended a caucus training session held at a local mosque.
Jeff Johnson, a leading Republican candidate for Minnesota governor, defended the GOP lawmakers in a conservative podcast earlier this month. “There are some here who are trying to change what America is,” he said. “And we can’t allow that.”
Phillip Parrish, another Republican candidate for governor in Minnesota, claimed earlier this year that the Islamic State militant group was “the true representation of Islam,” and that the religion of more than 1.6 billion people is “ultimately not a faith” and “fundamentally incompatible with U.S. law.”
This is not supposed to be happening, true enough; but simply saying so does precisely nothing to change the fact that it is.
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Image note: Detail of Lucifer, by Franz von Stuck, 1890.
Abdelaziz, Rowalda. “Activist Wants To Stop Muslims From Participating In Minnesota’s GOP” The Huffington Post. 12 February 2018.
This Is 