Try this simple experiment. Take Mike Pompeo's statements about Muslims, and his alliances with anti-Muslim bigots. Then imagine that he had made similar statements about Jews, and forged similar ties to anti-Semites. Then imagine the reaction if he were nominated for secretary of state.
If the analogy appears farfetched, it's only because, in the President Trump era, anti-Muslim bigotry is so pervasive that many of us have trouble recognizing it as bigotry at all.
Pompeo has a record of making dangerously misleading statements about Muslims. In 2013, he used the Boston Marathon bombing to imply that many American Muslim leaders and organizations secretly support violence against their country. From the House floor, he claimed that the “silence in the face of extremism coming from the best-funded Islamic advocacy organizations and many mosques across America is absolutely deafening. It casts doubt upon the commitment to peace among adherents of the Muslim faith.” This “silence,” Pompeo alleged, “has made these Islamic leaders across America potentially complicit in these acts” of terrorism. In fact, however, several major Muslim organizations had weighed in within hours of the attack to condemn it.
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