Issues

Civil-Rights-and-Civil-Liberties

Senator Jon Kyl screens controversial, anti-Islam video, “Fitna”, at the U.S. Capitol

Posted on Thursday February 26, 2009

AAI strongly opposed the decision of Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) to host Dutch MP Geert Wilders on Capitol Hill on Thursday, February 26 and urged him to cancel the screening of the film ‘Fitna.’

Although the timing of this event seemed to purposefully coincide with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on “Engaging with Muslim Communities Around the World,” scheduled for the same day, the decision to show this film, with Mr. Wilders as Senator Kyl’s invited guest, raised substantive concerns beyond the optics of partisanship or political show.

As the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, we were deeply troubled that Senator Kyl would host an individual, especially on the sacred grounds of the United States Capitol, who is known for holding extreme Islamophobic and anti-Arab views; who has been barred from entering the United Kingdom and described by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband as someone guilty of “extreme anti-Muslim hate”; who has tried to ban the Qur’an in the Netherlands; and who has produced such an inaccurate and distasteful video. We believe that this is not only unnecessarily provocative but offensive and egregiously irresponsible.

Dr. Zogby sent a letter to Senator Kyl, urging him to reconsider the screening:

Given your stature as Senate Minority Whip, we would expect your leadership in promoting only the values of tolerance, diversity and pluralism so cherished in our country as universal, and certainly inclusive of the millions of Americans who practice Islam. We would hope that you recognize that for over a hundred years Americans of Arab heritage and American Muslims have and continue to make extraordinary contributions to our growth and development as a nation. And we would trust that you appreciate the value of engaging the American Muslim community as a constituency vital to preserving the freedom and safety of our country. The fact that the viewing of the video is closed to the public and the press suggests that you are uninterested in such engagement or dialogue.

Arab Americans around the country have been contacting their representatives on the Hill to protest Senator Kyl’s decision to show the video on the Hill, to request that they do not attend the screening and do not permit their staffers to do so. To read the action alert, please click here.

In the news:
The Washington Times, Kyl hosts anti-Islamic Dutchman by Anne Flaherty, February 24, 2009

The New York Times, The Lede, Mr. Wilders Goes to Washington by Anahad O’Connor, February 26, 2009

The Huffington Post, Kyle versus Obama and Clinton, et al by Dr. James Zogby, February 25, 2009