ACLU: The United States' New 'Religious Freedom' Appointee Is a Religious Bigot
Tony Perkins? 
The United States' New ‘Religious Freedom’ Appointee Is a Religious Bigot
By Brian Tashman, Political Researcher and Strategist, ACLU
May 17, 2018 | 5:45 PM
The newest addition to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Tony Perkins, does not believe in religious freedom.
Perkins, who was appointed to the post by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), will now serve on a commission that supposedly serves as a watchdog “dedicated to defending the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad,” even though he has repeatedly demonstrated that he does not believe in the equal protection of Muslims and others.
The commission has a long history of politicization, along with anti-Muslim and anti-LGBT bias. Perkins’ inclusion will only continue to undermine its credibility.
While he claims to support religious freedom, Perkins believes that the Constitution does not protect the rights of Muslims.
He has said that “those who practice Islam in its entirety” should not be afforded the same constitutional freedoms as other Americans since Islam, in his words, is “incompatible with the Constitution” — an obviously false claim that, in reality, flies in the face of our Constitution. He even goes so far as to make the absurd and bizarre claim that “only 16 percent of Islam is a religion.”
A top official of his organization, the Family Research Council, once called for a ban on mosques, and the group published an essay arguing that Islam is not really a religious faith but rather “a religious government, the establishment of which the Establishment Clause prohibits.”
This is clearly nonsensical.
more...
https://www.aclu.org/blog/religious-liberty/government-promotion-religion/united-states-new-religious-freedom-appointee
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