WASHINGTON (ABP) — Four leaders of national Baptist, Jewish and interfaith organizations sent a letter to Rep. Allen West to raise concerns about comments he made about a Muslim colleague.
Brent Walker of the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty and Welton Gaddy, an ordained Baptist minister who leads the Interfaith Alliance, joined Jack Moline of the Rabbinical Assembly and David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism to voice "deep concern" about remarks the Florida Republican made about Keith Ellison, D-Minn.
In an interview on The Shalom Show, a weekly program on Jewish life and Israel produced in south Florida, West said Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, "really does represent the antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established."
The Christian and Jewish leaders said the comment "shows a frightening lack of understanding" of the principles that West intended to reference.
"It is an indisputable fact that one of those principles is religious freedom for all, memorialized in the United States Constitution — including, of course, Article VI's prohibition on any religious test for public office," the letter said. "Your remarks disrespect not only your Muslim colleagues in the Congress, but also all of your constituents of the Muslim faith. This is neither appropriate, nor true to the American values that you reference."
West responded with a letter claiming he is "neither anti-Muslim nor anti-Islam" and that his remarks about Ellison were not about his personal faith but his support of the Council on American Islamic Relations.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.