House Members ask Attorney
General Ashcroft to repudiate anti-Islamic remarks
April 8, 2002
The Honorable John Ashcroft
Attorney General of the United States
950 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20530-0001
Dear Attorney General Ashcroft:
We are writing to express our continued concern
over offensive comments attributed to you. We
ask you publicly to repudiate those comments and
to take steps to address issues of racial and
religious profiling more broadly.
In a recently published account of a syndicated
radio program, columnist Cal Thomas praises you
for reportedly making the following statement:
"Islam is a religion in which God requires you
to send your son to die for him. Christianity
is a faith in which God sends his son to die for
you."
Explanations provided by your office that your
comments were directed at terrorists and not at
Islam in general are unsatisfactory and directly
contradict Mr. Thomas's account. Moreover, the
fact that you have neither denied nor repudiated
these offensive remarks suggests that there is
good cause for concern among members of the Muslim
community, the Congress, and the American people
at large.
Such comments foster an atmosphere of religious
intolerance and divisiveness and are wholly inconsistent
with President Bush's calls for tolerance, unity,
and respect. Moreover, coming from the highest-ranking
law enforcement official in the country, they
sorely undermine public confidence in the office
of the Attorney General and the Justice Department's
ability to mete out justice fairly, free of racial
and religious bias.
During a meeting with the Congressional Black
Caucus early last year, you promised to deal more
effectively with racial and religious profiling.
The Justice Department has yet to put forward
any proposal to eliminate this discriminatory
practice.
As Members of Congress, we are concerned about
the Department of Justice's inability to ensure
that American citizens or residents do not face
discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity,
or suspected ethnicity. We therefore call on you
to issue an immediate apology for the offensive
remarks attributed to you and to follow up on
your commitment to deal effectively with racial
and religious profiling with concrete proposals.
Sincerely,
[signatures]
McKinney (D, GA-04)
Conyers (D, MI-14)
Bonior (D, MI-10)
Blagojevich (D, IL-05)
Dingell (D, MI-16)
Towns (D, NY-10)
S. T. Jones (D, OH-11)
G. Meeks (D, NY-06)
Kilpatrick (D, MI-15)
Waters (D, CA-35)
Clayton (D, NC-01)
Wynn (D, MD-04)
W. J. Jefferson (D, LA-02)
Rahall (D, WV-03)
Hinchey (D, NY-26)
Rush (D, IL-01)
Kaptur (D, OH-09)
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