Oklahoma State Representative Receives Award from anti-Muslim Hate Group

Rasa - Oklahoma state representative John Bennett of Sallisaw received the so-called National Defender of Freedom award from the anti-Muslim think tank Center for Security Policy (CSP)

News ID: 424882

Date: 07 November 2016 - 23:11

RNA - The event took place at the Sequoyah County Fairgrounds in Sallisaw. It caps an anti-Muslim week in Oklahoma in which CSP’s director, Frank Gaffney, along with other anti-Muslim figures, testified before the Oklahoma State Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, at Bennett’s invitation.

Bennett, who has been in office since 2010, is a staunch ally of the anti-Muslim movement and has a history of denigrating Islam. In a 2014 speech to constituents, he called Islam a “cancer that needs to be cut out” and also stated, “I’ve read the Quran, the Hadiths, the Suras. 90% of it is violence.” Later in the speech he said, “Is there a difference between moderate and radical Islam? I say no.”

Bennett has worked closely with CSP in the past, despite the think tank’s long history of anti-Muslim bigotry. In 2013, Clare Lopez, CSP’s Vice President for Research and Analysis, stated in a speech before the Central New Jersey chapter of the American Jewish Committee that, “When people in other bona fide religions follow their doctrines they become better people — Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Jews. When Muslims follow their doctrine, they become jihadists.”

In a 2015 example, Gaffney stated at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, Colorado that, “I don’t know about you, but it kind of creeps me out that they are getting jobs in the food supply of the United States.” He was referring to Somali refugees working in meat-packing plants.

Bennett’s relationship with CSP goes back a few years. In 2013 Lopez and Gaffney participated in law enforcement training titled, "Iran, Hezbollah and the Drug Cartels: Counterterrorism Considerations," which was organized by Bennett’s “Legislative Counterterrorism Caucus,” established in 2013. A year later, in 2014, Bennett “co-organized a virtual town hall meeting on terrorism featuring Gaffney,” according to the Center for New Community, a watchdog organization that monitors nativist extremism.

Last week, Bennett presided over an Oklahoma state House interim study on Radical Islam that featured Gaffney, who joined via Skype, and a litany of other anti-Muslim extremists.

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