The Craziest GOP House Race of the Year
Why people want hate lobbies and out of state millionaires to own their congressional lobby is beyond me. Voters should smell a deep stink from those out of state deep pockets.
Since losing to Black in 2010, Zelenik has ratcheted up the anti-Islam rhetoric that defined her first campaign. After the election, she founded the Tennessee Freedom Council, a conservative Christian organization dedicated to, among other things, educating “citizens on the realities of Sharia” and stopping “the growth of Radical Islam.” Last November, TFC held its inaugural “Constitution or Sharia?” conference, which featured luminaries like David Yerushalmi (the architect of the national movement to ban Islamic law from being applied in state courts) and Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy, who has accused anti-tax activist Grover Norquist of being allied with the Muslim Brotherhood. In May, Zelenik hosted the controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who is most famous for saying “there is no such thing as ‘moderate Islam’” and arguing Muhammad was a “terrorist.”
Having made her name fighting the Murfreesboro Islamic center, Zelenik founded a group dedicated to educating “citizens on the realities of Sharia.”
In 2011, two state legislators who have since endorsed Zelenik introduced a bill to define Islam as treasonous. The legislation, if passed, would have effectively prohibited Muslims from practicing their religion in the state. Earlier this month, a coalition of tea party groups and county Republican committees filed a formal complaint with the state’s Republican governor, Bill Haslem, for appointing a Muslim woman to helm a state agency.
