In a bid to stir controversy and deepen divisions, MSNBC host Jen Psaki recently leveled a serious assertion that the GOP was devising a plot to “recruit” Muslims into adopting anti-transgender stances.
“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,” Psaki said on her Sunday show, “Inside with Jen Psaki.”
“The GOP is trying to recruit Muslim Americans… against another tiny marginalized group of Americans, transgender people,” she continued.
These incendiary remarks have drawn sharp criticism from Islamic community leaders who staunchly refute Psaki’s claim. They argue that their position on transgender issues stems from their religious beliefs and not from any political machinations, as Psaki suggests.
“The left wants to scare Muslims into accepting its indoctrination of our children in exchange for a smile and pat on the head,” Ismail Royer, the director of the Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team for the Religious Freedom Institute, 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,” he continued.
In her bid to vilify the GOP, Psaki did not stop at allegations of manipulation. She sought to paint a fear-inducing image of the party, recounting its past actions towards the Muslim community.
“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,” she said. “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,” Psaki continued. “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.”
Despite Psaki’s unfounded claims, prominent figures within the Muslim community are standing firm. They denounce the narrative she’s pushing as ludicrous and argue that they are exercising their religious rights independently, without any coaxing from the political right.
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the national deputy director at CAIR, America’s “largest Muslim civil rights organization,” said, “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 also criticized Psaki’s fellow MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, accusing him of failing to address the real concerns expressed by Muslim families and instead misrepresenting them as dupes being used by the political right.
“And that is equity,” he added, suggesting that Psaki and her peers are more interested in sowing discord and pushing their agenda than promoting fairness and understanding.
“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,” said Sameerah Munshi of the Coalition of Virtue, echoing Mitchell’s sentiments.
As the Muslim community continues to defend its rights and beliefs independently, it would seem Psaki’s attempt at fearmongering has failed miserably.
