Several organizations want to hear a Tri-City legislator take back comments he made about the country’s largest Muslim advocacy organization.
But state Rep. Larry Haler, R-Richland, said he has already apologized for remarks he made about the Council on American-Islamic Relations at a January House Judiciary Committee meeting.
“We do have a group in this country called CAIR, which is basically run by the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, they are a political entity,” Haler said, according to the Seattle Times. “And their goal is to overthrow the country.”
The statements were made during a hearing on possibly repealing the state’s Cold War-era subversive activities law, which Haler recommended keeping in light of an attack on a satirical newspaper in Paris.
A letter delivered to Haler’s office Thursday by representatives of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, the Seattle-based immigration advocacy group OneAmerica and the Faith Action Network asked Haler to publicly retract his statements.
“Comments such as yours that invoke long-discredited conspiracy theories, especially because of your position of authority and power as a state lawmaker, can have an extraordinarily harmful impact on the safety and welfare of Muslims across our state,” the letter said. “Such public intolerance is linked to discrimination in housing and employment, to hate-crimes and to bullying in schools. It can foster a harmful environment of general mistrust and misunderstanding, an environment that isolates individuals and communities instead of engaging them in strengthening our democracy.”
The letter was signed by several other groups, as well as more than 20 people. Arsalan Bukhari, executive director of CAIR-Washington, told the Herald that most of the individuals were from the Tri-Cities.
Haler respects the views brought forth by the organizations and acknowledged that his comments “may have unintentionally offended some,” he said in a statement. But he said he had already apologized to a group of constituents on Jan. 19 and to CAIR and the Faith Action Network in a Feb. 2 meeting.
“It is unfortunate that these two instances do not satisfy their definition of apology,” he said. “However, I’m looking forward to continuing my work for all residents in the 8th Legislative District in making Washington state the best state in the nation to live, work and raise a family.”
But Haler needs to apologize in a public forum, said Bukhari, who took part in the Feb. 2 meeting.
“He made the comments publicly and on the record,” Bukhari said. “Because that happened, we are asking him to retract the comments publicly.”
Haler’s statements about CAIR were untrue, Bukhari said. He said the state group is funded entirely by Washington residents.
“If he has information to present that we are run by a foreign terror group, he needs to present that,” he said. “If people are going to make comments, they must do it responsibly. They must base it on fact.”
Such comments are particularly irresponsible, Bukhari said, considering the actions of an armed Burbank man who protested last fall in West Richland outside the Islamic Center of the Tri-Cities and referred to its members as terrorists. Bukhari said he was pleased to see Tri-City residents stand up to the man.
Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2015/02/12/3407846_groups-want-haler-to-retract-statements.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy