Rep. Allen West to Muslim Group: “NUTS!”

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The Miami New-Times says that this letter, from Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) to the Florida chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations “might be the dumbest thing ever written on congressional stationery,” which is serious charge in a legislative body that also includes Joe Barton:

 Courtesy of CAIRCourtesy of CAIR

The full context here is that West has been locked in a war of words with CAIR, a group he believes is aiding and abetting the Muslim Brotherhood’s efforts to destroy America as we know it. West has asserted that Islam is a “totalitarian theocratic political ideology” and, when confronted by a CAIR spokesman at a town hall meeting this spring, said “Don’t try to blow sunshine up my butt.” When it was revealed that the gunman in the Norway massacre was an avid fan—like West—of some of America’s leading Islamophobes, CAIR wrote to the Congressman to ask him to dissociate himself from folks like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer.

The one-word reply from West, an Army veteran, was a reference to this incident, immortalized in Band of Brothers:

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Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

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