Rep. Pete King Remains Silent As 2 Americans Are Murdered Trying To Stop Anti-Muslim Hate Crime

As a constituent of Rep. Peter King, I would like to know why he has not yet condemned the murder of two Americans, a veteran and father of four and a recent college graduate, that were carried out by white supremacist, Jeremy Joseph Christian, a man with a public record of “extremist ideology,” according to the Portland Police.

Ricky Best, Taliesin Namkai-Meche, and Micah David-Cole Fletcher intervened when Christian started yelling what "would best be characterized as hate speech toward a variety of ethnicities and religions" toward two Muslim teenagers. Destinee Mangum, one of the teens targeted by Christian reported that he “told us to go back to Saudi Arabia and he told us we shouldn’t be here, to get out of his country.” Christian stabbed the three men, killing Best and Namkai-Meche.

The murders happened hours before the start of Ramadan, a month long Muslim holy period of prayer, fasting and charity. Rep. King has said that “The threat to this country is not Islamophobia, it’s Islamist terrorism.” While King has called Islamophobia “nonsense,” there was a 67% increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2015 according to the FBI, and the number of anti-Muslim hate groups nearly tripled in 2016.

I met with Rep. King this February and questioned his support of Donald Trump’s Travel Ban. When King said that the Executive Order was not a Muslim Ban, I reminded him that the order specifically prioritized Christian refugees over Muslim refugees. He told me “the logic in that would be, that if you know that a person is a Christian, you can assume they’re not an Islamic terrorist. If a Jew is coming from Nazi Germany, you can assume they were not Nazis.”

Rep. King has urged President Trump to create a federal Muslim surveillance program. Both King's and Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric have fueled hate crimes, and allowed extremists to feel they have a voice in Congress and in the White House. Would Rep. King have already condemned the murder of two American heroes had they been killed while trying to protect two white women? Would he have spoken up if an undocumented immigrant or “radical Islamic terrorist” killed a veteran? Why is he silent now? As a constituent, I call on Rep. King to immediately and emphatically condemn this hate crime.

Liuba Grechen Shirley
Founder & District Organizer
New York’s 2nd District Democrats