Rep. Allen West to Muslim Group: “NUTS!”

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The Miami New-Times says that this letter, from Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) to the Florida chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations “might be the dumbest thing ever written on congressional stationery,” which is serious charge in a legislative body that also includes Joe Barton:

 Courtesy of CAIRCourtesy of CAIR

The full context here is that West has been locked in a war of words with CAIR, a group he believes is aiding and abetting the Muslim Brotherhood’s efforts to destroy America as we know it. West has asserted that Islam is a “totalitarian theocratic political ideology” and, when confronted by a CAIR spokesman at a town hall meeting this spring, said “Don’t try to blow sunshine up my butt.” When it was revealed that the gunman in the Norway massacre was an avid fan—like West—of some of America’s leading Islamophobes, CAIR wrote to the Congressman to ask him to dissociate himself from folks like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer.

The one-word reply from West, an Army veteran, was a reference to this incident, immortalized in Band of Brothers:

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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