Fear of a Republican Muslim
I can’t imagine why any Muslim would want to belong to the Republican party these days. Good luck with that, Mr. Hamze.
External ImageA Muslim leader in south Florida is seeking to form the first Muslim Republican club in the area, drawing intense opposition from some within the GOP.
Nezar Hamze is the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of South Florida. He is also, he tells me, a longtime registered Republican who wants to “fight the myth of the Muslim vote being Democratic.”
He is also the latest flashpoint in a battle over Islam within the GOP, seen most recently in the criticisms of Rick Perry for his ties to the Texas Muslim community and in Virginia, where a Muslim Republican candidate for the House of Delegates has come under attack.
In August, Hamze, 35, submitted an application to become a voting member of the Broward Republican Executive Committee, a body within which he would like to organize the Muslim Republican club.
“A lot of Muslims I know, their values really line up with the conservative values of the Republican party,” Hamze says. “I’m a strict social conservative, a fiscal conservative, a very strict constitutionalist. The protection of civil liberties for all Americans is supreme.”
He was not exactly welcomed with open arms. Following a report on Hamze’s plans on Shark Tank, a right-leaning Florida politics website, he was attacked as un-American by some commentators.
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