Jen Psaki says GOP 'trying to recruit' Muslims to be anti-trans
MSNBC host Jen Psaki discusses her view on Muslims speaking out against LGBTQ curriculum in K-12 public schools.
MSNBC host Jen Psaki claimed the GOP was "trying to recruit" Muslims into being anti-transgender, although activists from the Islamic community have disputed the claim peddled by the liberal network of a "toxic agenda" they are being accused of joining and say it is an issue of religious freedom, not politics.
The former White House press secretary claimed on her Sunday show, "Inside with Jen Psaki," that the Republican Party was dividing Muslims from transgender people, and listed why she believed the GOP was a danger to the Muslim community. The comments were first noted by Kevin Tober at Media Research Center.
"The GOP successfully managed to split off Southern Whites from the Democratic Party. Now, decades later, the right wing is reviving that same playbook, this time with Muslim Americans and trans people," said Psaki. "The GOP is trying to recruit Muslim Americans… against another tiny marginalized group of Americans, transgender people."
The director of the Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team for the Religious Freedom Institute, Ismail Royer, told Fox News Digital that Psaki's remarks were insulting to Muslims.
MUSLIM ACTIVIST GIVES POWERFUL SPEECH AGAINST FORCED LGBTQ CURRICULUM: 'OUR PEOPLE ARE NOT BACKWARD'
MSNBC host Jen Psaki discusses Muslims opposing LGBTQ curriculum. (MSNBC/screenshot)
"The left wants to scare Muslims into accepting its indoctrination of our children in exchange for a smile and pat on the head," Royer told Fox News Digital. "They insult Muslims by portraying us as having no agency or intelligence but can’t imagine that we’ve weighed the bargain they offer us and rejected it."
During the segment Psaki discussed why she believed Muslims should be scared of the GOP.
Psaki said, "It's important to remember that back in 2011, during the Republican primary, the right wing had designated Muslim Americans as public enemy number one. No surprise, given that conspiracy theorists – remember the birthers? I do – have been trying for years to portray President Obama as a Trojan horse for Sharia law. Republican after Republican candidate ginned up fear about the fabricated threat posed by an Islamic legal doctrine debated by scholars for centuries. To them, the imaginary prospect of Sharia law in this country was scarier than gun violence, climate change, and more important to discuss than, say, millions of people who didn't have health care."
A similar narrative was peddled on MSNBC's "All in with Chris Hayes" hosted by Mehdi Hasan on June 21, and was attacked by one of the most prominent Islamic organizations in the U.S. as "ludicrous."
"[MSNBC guest] Wajahat Ali warns his fellow Muslims against falling for GOP tactics to draw them into attacks against the LGBTQ community," MSNBC tweeted, describing the segment.
MSNBC claims there's a "toxic agenda" of "wooing" Muslims by GOP. The Council for American Islamic Relations blasted the segment, and said Muslim parents are "independently" standing up for justice and religious freedom.
"We live in a pluralistic society... And Muslims who are watching need to know that these same forces who are using us against LGBTQ have turned on us and will turn on other people of color and immigrants," said Ali.
The chiron for the segment suggested the GOP was "wooing" Muslims for "the toxic agenda."
However, an executive at the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the "largest Muslim civil rights organization" in America disputed the claims that Muslims were functioning as part of the GOP's playbook.
"It doesn't matter who supports a cause. What matters is whether the cause is just in itself," said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the national deputy director at CAIR about the segment.
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the national deputy director at CAIR, criticized an MSNBC segment for claiming Muslims are aligning with a "toxic agenda." (YouTube/screenshot)
"Bismillah (in the name of Allah). The vast majority of concerned Muslim parents and students have been independently standing up for their religious rights in the public school system on their own without prompting from the right and without fear of backlash from the left," Mitchell continued.
He proceeded to blast MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan for failing to properly illustrate the concerns expressed by Muslim families.
"Instead of addressing the substance of the concerns that these families have raised about what's happening [in] public schools, the likes of [MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan]… paint these parents as dupes being used by the political right," he continued.
Mitchell went on to refer to how a Montgomery County Council member, Kristin Mink, was forced to apologize after claiming Muslim children were on the side of "White supremacists" for speaking out their faith opposition to attending lessons with sexual and transgender curriculum as early as elementary school.
"And that is equity," the Democrat continued.
Montgomery County Council member Kristin Mink has a history of comments about White people, Muslims and Jews. (Montgomery County Council )
Mitchell added it was "ludicrous" to imply that "Muslims should not support a cause simply because right-wing activists or conservative Christians happen to support that same cause."
"Insha Allah (God-willing), the mainstream of the Muslim American community will continue to independently stand up for what is right and against what is wrong, regardless of what the right or left think."
Muslim activist Sameerah Munshi of the Coalition of Virtue, similarly said at a board meeting in Montgomery County that it was bigoted for people on the left to expect Muslims to completely agree with them on every issue.
"Our faith is not partisan and our people are not backwards," she said.
"Part of the American dream of our people is that they pass on their values to their children… We [as Muslims] reject the implication that acting on our faith's principles is a willful means of harming others. In fact, we see it as a point of bigotry that some only care for our community and will only protect our rights when we assimilate to their way of life and ways of thinking."
Psaki's claim about the GOP supposedly "trying to recruit" Muslims doesn't explain the issue of gender ideology in curriculum that has also upset Muslims outside the United States.
Muslims in Canada have voiced opposition to gender ideology and K-12 LGBTQ+ curriculum being taught to their children, demanding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "Leave our kids alone" outside his office, according to a June 24 report from Post Millennial.
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The protest followed Christians and Muslims who came together in Calgary to protest the gender ideology being taught in schools, Post Millennial reported.
Fox News Digital has reached out to MSNBC for comment but has yet to receive a response.
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