The Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-OK) today called on a church in that state to drop its anti-Islam agenda, citing the Islamophobic views of a church speaker who claims that President is an undercover Saudi Arabian “Muslim plant” in the White House.
The keynote speaker of tonight’s event at Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, Okla., is Avi Lipkin, an infamous Islamophobe who alleges among other things that Muslims worship the devil and that all Muslims want to kill Christians and Jews.
“This kind of bigotry and hysteria only serves to fuel the growing chorus of anti-Muslim sentiment that is unfortunately spreading in the Heartland,” said CAIR-OK Executive Director Muneer Awad. “We respectfully request that the church drop this speaker and other hate-mongers, and offer its congregants a sincere opportunity for dialogue and information about Islam and Muslims.”
Awad said Fairview Baptist Church is known for hosting anti-Muslim speakers such as William Boykin, who recently withdrew from a speaking event at West Point Military Academy after concerns over his remarks that Islam does not deserve religious protections under the First Amendment, and Brigitte Gabriel, who paid tens of thousands of dollars to conduct robocalls in Oklahoma in 2010 to allege Muslim men rape their wives.
Gabriel, who is scheduled to speak at the Edmond church in April, claims a “practicing Muslim who believes the word of the Koran to be the word of Allah, who abides by Islam, who goes to mosque and prays every Friday, who prays five times a day – this practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America.”