Rep. John Gillette, R-Kingman, in January 2023. Picture of Gage Skidmore | Flickr/CC By-Sa 2.0
He called the Republican state of Muslims “fucking savages” in an interview on Monday, definitely, putting Islamophobic comments, which in social media this month included the call of members of faith with “terrorists”.
From the beginning of September, rep. John Gillette made a series of posts on X, earlier Twitter, directed to Muslim faith. Many were Loved with profanityAnd Kingman Republican insisted Muslim immigrants are “savages” Because they are Pushing the “Sharia law” on the Americans.
In several posts, Gillette blamed Democrats for supporting Muslims in America and said that Islamophobia is not true.
“Islamophobia is a Marxist construct that I reject,” he wrote Post September 2. “I have many years of experience with these savages. Their (sic) religion proclaimed converted or dying. Fuck. If they want to become a hole here they left … They can go home. Democrats support them. Democrats hate America.”
IN One post Responding to the video published by the far -right Tiktok account showing a Muslim in Texas, demanding that the stores stop selling alcohol and pork, Gillette recognized the man as a “anti -American terrorist”, which should be sent “back to the () hole from which he came.”
Gillette initially told The Mirror that he does not think that all Muslims should be assessed by extremist members of religion, but quickly connected Islam with a terrorist attack in 2012 at the American embassy in the Libyan city of Bengazi and doubled on the exploit of the term “wild”.
“I had friends killed in Bengazi by these savages,” said Gillette, army veteran and deputy sheriff in Illinois Who resigned after the assembly of 42 complaints In his 13-year career. “Now it gets pissed. It’s damn savageical.”
On Monday, Gillette also used social media to aim at the governor of Katie Hobbs, democratics, for meeting Islamic leaders in the past, publishing a screenshot of the post on Instagram from the chapter of the Arizona of the Council for American-Islamic relations, celebrating that his executive director had the executive director Met with Hobbs in January 2023.
“We absolutely do not need Muslim consulting in the government,” Gillette wrote Before accusing Caira of being “a well -known organization of terrorists (sic)”, which is “the front group of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Cair Arizona described the meeting with Hobbs in 2023 as an attempt to “find ways to work together on the instruction of a just Arizona.” There was no formal government advisory role, as Gillette suggested.
In 2014, the United Arab Emirates appointed Cair a terrorist organization, claiming that he had connections with the Muslim Brotherhood. The government of the United States itself He never appointed Cair As a terrorist organization and, together with other countries, was looking for additional information on why Cair and Other organizations were placed on the list.
Gillette admitted that the United States did not designate Cair as a terrorist organization, but insisted that Cair cooperate with other known terrorist organizations; Mirror did not find evidence of the justification of Gillette’s claim.
“I am not trying to slander religion, but religion was taken over by many Islamic terrorists,” said Gillette about a religion practiced by 2 billion people around the world and 1% of the Arizona population.
Before she suddenly finished the interview, hanging up, Gillette told the mirror that Muslims did not “assimilate” with American culture. But he said he knew the Iranian immigrant he described “Muslim-Lite”, which “assimilated” and is a “registered Republican”.
“He assimilates with our lifestyle,” said Gillette, “But when you come here and demand our law enforcement and our government your demands to respect your religion … They don’t have to push me on me, I don’t press Christianity on them.”
He added that Islam is “pushed” on him every time he visits Phoenix, although he did not give any specific examples.
“I stay away from Phoenix as much as possible,” he said.
J’aime Morgaine, a liberal activist who lives in the same legislative Gillette District, represents and led as a democrat for the State Senate in 2024, called the remarks of the state legislator “terrifying”.
“Ironically, his comments explain exactly why the government needs advisers from the Muslim community,” Morgaine said. “The reference of Mr. Gillette to Muslims as” savages “is a racist whistle for dogs. But I am not surprised that it consolidates a lie, that “wild” behavior is reduced only for some racial or ethnic groups. ”
The Cair chapter in Arizona did not answer the request for a comment to this story.
Centrum Western States, a non -profit organization that is working on organizing marginalized communities to combat bigotry and strengthen democracy, said Gillette’s comments are risky.
“They repeat the same false, overthrown anti -Muslim conspiracy theories, for a long time promoted by racist demagogs. These types of dehumanizing and simply inaccurate rhetorical fuel chain and led to true violence, from Christchurch and El Paso after Oak Creek and Buffalo,” Lindsay Schubiner, director of the program For the Western states.
Arizona has a long history with Islamophobia.
After terrifying attacks of September 11, 2001, Balbir Singh Sodhi He was killed at the gas station he had In Mesa by a man who allegedly sought revenge for attacks and saw Sodhi’s outfit as an indication that he was a member of Muslim faith. The Sikhs practice an unrelated religion.
A man also shot to a Lebanese-American gas clerk who was untouched, and then finally returned to the local bar brag.
In 2014, the Office of the Maricopa Ferrious Prosecutor organized a training seminar by a man who had previously claimed that they were CIA director John Brennan is secretly a Muslim.
It turned out later Montgomery spent $ 40,000 Bring the speaker who He confessed to sexual meetings with a confidential informant While working with the FBI.
Four years later, Republicans from Arizona refused to condemn Conducting a similar theorist of the conspiracy who claimed that Muslims want to take over the country.
In 2015, Jon Ritzheimer gained publicity to wear a shirt with the inscription “Fuck Islam” while walking in front of the Phoenix mosque, ultimately leading a protest before him. The protest covered the competition to see who could draw the Prophet Mohammed the best, an act that intentionally did not respect Muslim faith.
Ritzheimer was involved in the litany of extremist activities, including the study calling for the arrest of a democratic senator and for his Involvement in the start in Malheur Wildlife Refugeto which he was then arrested and pleaded guilty.
The protest was also partly the idea of ​​an anti -Muslim activist, Pamela Geller, Grzywki in politics in Arizona for years and an outstanding Islamophobic. She was a balmy promoter of the racist conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama is a Muslim from Kenya – a theory that He was strengthened by former President Donald Trump before his presidency and examined by the former Sheriff of the Ferrings Maricop Joe Arpaio.
The city of Kingman in 2018 He swore to change After the satirical series of Showtime comedian Sacha Baron Cohen “Who is America?” He showed members of the city poorly responding to a fictitious proposed mosque in his city, with one man who said in this segment that the mosque supports “terrorism” and another Saying that blacks are not welcome in the city.
In 2018, two women who were members of the local extremist group It belongs to the main domestic headlines For vandalizing and theft from the Tempa mosque.
This story was originally produced by Arizona Mirrorwhich is part of StatesRoom, non -information information, which includes the Ohio Capital Journal, and is supported by subsidies and coalition of donors as 501C (3) public charity.
