The Freedom From Religion Foundation chastises a Senate hearing yesterday for promoting anti-Muslim fearmongering and undermining the First Amendment.
The Senate Judiciary Courts Subcommittee hearing was aptly and ominously titled: “Hidden in Plain Sight: Confronting the Muslim Brotherhood Network in America,”
“Hidden in plain sight is the fact that Sen. Ted Cruz and others are engaged in a latter-day witch hunt to demonize a religious minority while at the same time seeking to use our federal government to promote Christian nationalism,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
The hearing repeatedly blurred the distinction between violent extremists and lawful Muslim religious and civic organizations, portraying constitutionally protected advocacy, litigation, coalition-building and civic engagement as evidence of a broader religious threat. Such rhetoric runs counter to the First Amendment’s twin guarantees of religious liberty: the Establishment Clause, which bars the government from favoring one religion over another, and the Free Exercise Clause, which protects every person’s right to practice their faith free from government discrimination.
Showing the dangers of such governmental disfavor toward a religious minority is the fact that the hearing was delayed from its originally scheduled date of May 20, after three people were killed two days earlier in a targeted attack at the Islamic Center of San Diego.
Cruz suggested that Muslim organizations must be viewed with suspicion because they file lawsuits, challenge government policies, organize on college campuses and engage in public advocacy. Those are ordinary First Amendment activities routinely exercised by religious and secular organizations across the ideological spectrum, including conservative Christian legal groups that frequently litigate against state/church protections and seek to influence public policy.
“When advocacy by one religious community is portrayed as evidence of extremism while similar advocacy by politically favored religious groups is celebrated, the government abandons the religious neutrality required by the Constitution,” adds FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “The First Amendment protects every American’s right to petition the government, speak freely and participate in civic life regardless of their religious beliefs.”
The hearing reflects a broader trend to portray Christianity as uniquely compatible with American government while treating minority faiths as inherently suspect or less authentically American. The Framers of the Constitution were first in history to prohibit religious tests for public office and adopted the First Amendment in part to assure that our government would not elevate one faith while marginalizing others.
As Thomas Jefferson wrote of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the model for the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses, its protections extend equally to “the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination.” The Constitution’s promise of religious liberty has always rested on equal treatment — not religious favoritism.
FFRF’s affiliated advocacy organization, the FFRF Action Fund, joined a broad coalition of religious liberty, civil rights and faith-based organizations warning that the hearing’s premise “is among the latest in a long line of attacks that are designed to sow fear and conspiracy theories about an entire religion and a diverse community for political gain.” The coalition cautioned that such attacks undermine the nation’s commitment to religious freedom for all.
Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Courts Subcommittee announced that they would boycott the hearing, calling it a “political creepshow” that scapegoats Muslims for political gain amid rising violence targeting houses of worship.
The government has a compelling interest in investigating and prosecuting terrorism wherever credible evidence exists. But congressional oversight must target unlawful conduct supported by evidence, not cast a cloud over millions of peaceful Americans because they belong to a disfavored faith. History has repeatedly demonstrated that when the government singles out one religion for suspicion, the religious liberty of all Americans is weakened.
“When elected officials exploit religious prejudice for political gain, they don’t just harm one faith community,” Gaylor says. “They erode the constitutional principle of separation between religion and government that protects everyone’s religious liberty. The government has no business deciding which religions are truly ‘American’ and which should be viewed with suspicion.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With about 41,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
