At a Senate hearing convened on Tuesday by former GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a witness accused two Members of Congress of having connections to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The charges were leveled against Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Andre Carson (D-Ind.), the only two Muslims serving in the House.
First reported by the Huffington Post, Chris Gaubatz—a so-called national security consultant—testified that the lawmakers had spoken at a convention in 2008 sponsored by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). He claimed that the proceedings were “organized by the Muslim Brotherhood group.”
The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamic political party founded in Egypt with networks across the Middle East. It briefly rose to power in Cairo in 2011 following the ouster of strongman president Hosni Mubarak, and the county’s first-ever democratic election. In 2013, however, the Egyptian military overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood and arrested its leaders, including the elected president, Mohamed Morsi.
While it is true that Ellison and Carson addressed the ISNA convention—as did President Obama in 2015—the group has flatly rejected any ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. An official with ISNA, Faryal Khatri, told HuffPo, “I can definitely tell you we are not Muslim Brotherhood.”
“We are not affiliated with them at all and never were. That much I can assure you,” Khatri added.
The focus of Tuesday’s Judiciary subcommittee hearing was to knock the Obama administration for its alleged efforts to “deemphasize radical Islam in combating terrorism.”
In opening remarks, Cruz calimed that there is a “consistent effort by this administration to scrub any reference to radical Islamic terrorism” and “to pretend that the threat does not exist.”
“We cannot combat and defeat Islamic terrorism without recognizing that it exists,” Cruz added.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) shot back, blasting the premise of the hearing. To “blame over a billion Muslims for the twisted actions of an extremist few only serves to divide Americans, to alienate the Muslim world, and to legitimate the groups who falsely claim to speak for Islam.
Also taking offense to Ted Cruz’s hearing was Sen. Amy Klobuchar (R-Minn.), who defended Rep. Ellison from the insinuations.
“He is my congressman. He is a man of great patriotism,” Klobuchar said of Ellison.
Cruz has long dabbled in Islamophobia, even though his proposals were often overshadowed by the heavy-handed xenophobia of the Donald Trump campaign. At one point during his presidential bid, Cruz called for the authorities to monitor mosques and Muslim neighborhoods around the country.
Cruz also enlisted notorious Islamophobe Frank Gaffney as a national security advisor. Gaffney, who heads the Center for Security Policy, has previously claimed that conservative anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist and Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin are also secret agents of the Muslim Brotherhood.
