[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 20125-20127]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          FREEDOM OF RELIGION

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, it is interesting--the Midwest draws us 
together in the right way.
  Last night in Springfield, IL, a typical midwestern American city, 
there was a gathering of people from all across the city at 5:30 on a 
Sunday night. It was a gathering at the Islamic Society of Springfield. 
A request had been made for people of all religions to come together 
and to pray in solidarity with our Islamic neighbors. It was billed as 
a peace rally originally scheduled to be held outside, even in winter 
weather. Although it has been warm for this time of year, it was 
raining heavy last night as we all arrived at the building, so everyone 
crammed inside the building. There was standing and sitting room only. 
It was a huge outpouring of support for our Muslim brothers and sisters 
in the Springfield community.
  There were representatives of virtually every religion present, and 
many spoke--rabbis, ministers, Catholic nuns, and even a few elected 
officials--trying to let our friends in the Muslim community know that 
despite some of the things that had been said over the last few weeks 
by Presidential candidates, we in fact embrace them as part of the 
American family.
  There was also an event this weekend that occurred far away from 
Springfield, in Scottsdale, AZ, where my colleague in the Senate, Jeff 
Flake of Arizona, visited a mosque. It was widely reported. He made 
outstanding remarks about the regret he felt over some of the political 
statements that had been made over the last several weeks by political 
candidates. Jeff Flake reminded us across the Nation, as I tried to 
remind those in Springfield last night, that America is a nation which 
values the freedom of religious belief.
  Our Constitution speaks to only three elements when it comes to 
religion and our government. First, it says that each of us has the 
freedom and liberty to choose our own religion or to choose no 
religion. Second, it says our government will never establish an 
official state religion. Third, in article VI, it says there will be no 
religious test in the United States of America of candidates for public 
office.
  It is hard to believe that those three simple thoughts have carried 
this Nation for more than two centuries when it comes to religion, but 
we have been successful. Our Nation has been successful where others 
have failed. There have been times when we failed to live up to our own 
ideals and our own values, and when hateful statements are made by 
Presidential candidates, it calls on us to remember our history and to 
remember triumphant moments and sad moments as well.
  It was May of 1939 when the ship SS St. Louis left Germany with 900 
Jewish passengers. They were trying to escape Hitler and the Nazis. 
They went to Havana, Cuba, and they were turned away. Then they came to 
Miami, FL, asking if they could be refugees, Jewish refugees, coming to 
the United States, and they were turned away as well. The 900 Jewish 
passengers went back to Germany. According to the records of the 
Holocaust Museum, 200 of them perished in the Holocaust. It was about 
that same time when Senator Robert Wagner of New York offered a measure 
in the Senate--in this very Chamber--that our country would accept 
10,000 Jewish children from Germany who were seeking to escape the 
Holocaust. Sadly, that measure was defeated.
  We have other instances in history that go back to the beginning of 
our Nation where we have been challenged to live up to the ideals and 
principles of the Constitution. That challenge is with us again today.
  A candidate for President of the United States--of a major political 
party--has called for the exclusion of Muslims from being allowed to 
immigrate into the United States. That is reprehensible, it is 
outrageous, and it is un-American. Members of both political parties in 
Congress have spoken out against it, as they should.
  We must remember that many of our Nation's Founders fled religious 
persecution to come to this Nation. George Washington summed up the 
prevailing view when he said, ``In this land of equal liberty, it is 
our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the 
protection of the laws.'' That, of course, is included in the First 
Amendment to our Constitution.
  Throughout our history, many religious minorities have faced 
intolerance, often prejudice. It was once Catholics from Ireland, 
Italy, and my mother's homeland of Lithuania who were questioned. Today 
American Muslims face the same threats of similar discrimination.
  In recent weeks a number of prominent Republican leaders have made 
these threats. But I add quickly that there has been a greater number, 
thank goodness, who have spoken out against these statements, even on 
the Republican side.
  One Presidential candidate compared Syrian refugees to ``rabid dogs'' 
and said that American Muslims should not be President of the United 
States. The frontrunner for the Republican nomination called for a 
``total and complete'' ban on Muslim immigrants coming to the United 
States and advocated for closing down their places of worship. These 
comments are reprehensible and do not reflect who we are as a nation.
  These comments also don't reflect the vital role that millions of 
Muslim Americans play in my hometown of Springfield, IL, and across the 
United

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States. There are American Muslims who are teachers, professors, 
doctors, police officers, first responders, and members of the U.S. 
Armed Forces.
  I am concerned that the anti-Muslim rhetoric we have heard in recent 
weeks could alienate the Muslim community and harm the important 
relationship between the community and Federal law enforcement.
  Last night, as I was leaving the gathering in Springfield, a mother 
pulled me aside and said she feared for her daughter who wears a 
hijab--a veil--and who may be the subject of discrimination because of 
the things that have been said by some of these Presidential 
candidates. It is important for us to understand her feelings, the love 
of her children, just as we love our own children and grandchildren, 
and to also realize that the feelings of the Muslim Americans are truly 
part of our Nation.
  Last night we began the gathering in Springfield, IL, pledging 
allegiance to the flag--all of us--and singing ``The Star-Spangled 
Banner.'' Then the first person to make remarks in the Muslim community 
told us he had served in the U.S. Navy for 19 years. It is hard to 
imagine some of the hateful things that have been said in that context.
  In testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2004--not 
long after 9/11--FBI Director Robert Mueller thanked the Muslim and 
Arab American communities ``for their assistance and for their ongoing 
commitment to preventing acts of terrorism.'' It has been important to 
the United States. He went on to say: ``All of us understand that the 
evolving threats we face today, and those we will face tomorrow, can 
only be defeated if we work together.''
  The current FBI Director, James Comey, spoke before a Senate 
Judiciary Committee hearing last week and said:

       We've worked so hard over the last 15 years to build 
     relationships of trust that allow us to find out who might be 
     trouble and to stop it. That's in everybody's interest. And 
     anything that gets in the way, that erodes that relationship 
     of trust, is not a good thing.

  The inflammatory speeches we have heard create a fertile ground for 
discrimination. Attorney General Loretta Lynch recently denounced the 
``disturbing rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric'' and stated that her 
``greatest fear as a prosecutor . . . is that the rhetoric will be 
accompanied by acts of violence.''
  Sitting next to me last night in Springfield was the U.S. attorney 
for the Central District of Illinois, James Lewis--a friend and someone 
I am very honored and proud to have nominated to the President for this 
position. He told me he spent the last several weeks traveling across 
Central Illinois, visiting Muslim mosques and assuring them that they 
were still part of America and that they had the full protection of the 
law. Nevertheless, there has been a dramatic increase of anti-Muslim 
bigotry since 9/11. In fear and anger, some Americans have wrongly 
struck out at Muslims.
  I had my differences with former President George W. Bush, but he 
showed real insight, wisdom, and leadership after 9/11 when he made it 
clear to America that our war was with terrorists who perverted the 
teachings of the Islamic religion, not with Muslims who were faithful 
to what he called ``a faith based upon love, not hate.'' Congress at 
that time spoke with a clear voice too. I cosponsored a resolution with 
John Sununu, a Republican from New Hampshire, who was then the only 
Arab American in the Senate. Our resolution condemned anti-Muslim, 
anti-Arab bigotry, and said that American Muslims are vibrant, 
peaceful, law-abiding, and greatly contribute to American society. That 
resolution passed both Chambers unanimously. I hope it would pass 
today.
  Earlier this decade, we saw another wave of anti-Muslim rhetoric and 
discrimination. In 2011 I chaired the first ever congressional hearing 
on the civil rights of American Muslims. That hearing documented an 
alarming increase of anti-Muslim bigotry. At the time, the Equal 
Employment Opportunity Commission found that Muslims accounted for 
approximately 25 percent of religious discrimination cases, although 
they were less than 1 percent of the population. Mary Jo O'Neill of the 
EEOC said:

       There's a level of hatred and animosity that is shocking. 
     I've been doing this for 31 years, and I've never seen such 
     antipathy towards Muslim workers.

  Unfortunately, we are again experiencing an increase in anti-Muslim 
discrimination. Last week Oren Segal of the Anti-Defamation League 
said, ``We're definitely seeing anti-Muslim bigotry escalating around 
the country.''
  In recent weeks vandals defaced a mosque near Austin, TX; a pig's 
head was thrown on the doorstep of a Philadelphia mosque; a man was 
arrested for breaking into a Florida mosque and damaging property; a 
sixth grade girl in New York City was allegedly called ``ISIS'' as a 
group of boys punched her and tried to remove her hijab; and on 
Thanksgiving day a Muslim cabdriver from Pittsburgh was shot in the 
back by a passenger who reportedly asked the driver about ISIS and 
whether he was a ``Pakistani guy.''
  Just this weekend a man in California was arrested and charged for a 
hate crime and arson after allegedly setting a fire in a mosque.
  Last week Representative Andre Carson--a Democrat from Indiana and 
one of the two American Muslims who serve in the U.S. Congress--
received a death threat. Here is what Congressman Carson said:

       You have other politicians who are joining the bandwagon 
     and who are fanning the flames of bigotry. That concerns me 
     because we're putting people into the line of fire exposing 
     them to death threats, discrimination at the workplace and 
     assaults.

  These incidents of intimidation, hostility, and violence impact the 
entire Muslim American community. They also play into our enemies' 
warped views of the United States. Director Comey of the FBI noted last 
week that ``the notion that the U.S. is anti-Muslim is part of ISIL's 
narrative and Al Qaeda's narrative.''
  It is important to note that not only Muslim Americans are being 
targeted. Bigots have also targeted Arab Americans, many of whom are 
Christian, and Hindus, and Sikhs. After 9/11, the first victim killed 
in the backlash was Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh American, in Mesa, AZ. I 
submitted a resolution, which passed the Senate unanimously, condemning 
bigotry against Sikh Americans.
  In 2012, a White supremacist murdered six Sikhs at a gurdwara in Oak 
Creek, WI. Following this terrorist attack, I chaired a hearing on hate 
crimes and the threat of domestic extremism where we learned that the 
FBI wasn't even tracking these crimes against Arab Americans, Hindu 
Americans, and Sikh Americans. I asked the FBI to change the policy, 
and they did. Clearly there is more work to be done.
  Last week, a vandal spray-painted anti-Muslim graffiti on a Sikh 
gurdwara in Buena Park, CA. In September, a Sikh man in my home State 
of Illinois suffered a fractured cheekbone after he was allegedly 
assaulted by a man who yelled ``terrorist'' and ``go back to your 
country'' at him.
  As we work to combat terrorism, we must also work to prevent and 
punish discrimination and hate-fueled violence against Muslim 
Americans. The rights of Muslim Americans are just as important as the 
rights of Christians, Jews, followers of other faiths, and nonbelievers 
as well.
  We know the First Amendment protects both the free exercise of 
religion and the freedom of speech. But all of us, especially those of 
us in public life, have a responsibility to choose our words carefully. 
We must condemn bias and bigotry aimed at Muslim Americans and make it 
clear that we will not tolerate religious discrimination in the United 
States of America. We can protect our Nation and still be true to the 
fundamental freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Will the Senator withhold that suggestion?
  Mr. DURBIN. Yes.

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