PHILADELPHIA – April 27, 2018 – Senator Chris Murphy (Democrat of Connecticut) attacked the Middle East Forum on the floor of the U.S. Senate this week. In this video clip, Senator Murphy claims that, “[Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo was deeply intertwined with this network of anti-Muslim organizations… They have fairly innocuous sounding names, like the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, the Middle East Forum, The Investigative Project on Terrorism... Those sound like things that I might be for, but if you really take a look at what they do, they preach intolerance.” In fact, these American groups promote American values. The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is a prominent Muslim counter-extremism organization, and a leading component in the growing Muslim reformist movement. The Middle East Forum (MEF) has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to moderate Muslim and anti-Islamist causes, working with moderate and reformist Muslim groups and activists all across the country. The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has conducted cutting-edge research on extremism and jihadi violence, which law enforcement has extensively relied on. Chris Murphy thoughtlessly repeated the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) talking points, after it spent weeks urgently encouraging its supporters to lobby him to oppose Pompeo’s confirmation. This fits a long-standing pattern of Senator Murphy’s cooperating with CAIR. For example, he spoke at a 2013 banquet. Murphy’s rant reconfirms the effectiveness of AIFD, IPT, and ourselves. We urge members of the public to call Senator Murphy's office in Washington DC - (202) 224-4041 - and demand he retract his support for Islamists. Moreover, support organizations, like the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, the Middle East Forum and The Investigative Project on Terrorism, in promoting American interests.
For more information, contact: Gregg Roman, Director 215-546-5406 Roman@MEForum.org
