Lt. Col. Allen West Responds to Request for Apology to Islam

Newly elected Rep. Lt. Col. Allen West (R-FL) recently said that Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) represented the 'antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established' (video below). This apparently got the dander up of some non-Islamic religious leaders who probably sport those nifty 'coexist' bumper stickers on their cars. In the letter to West, the alleged national religious leaders seemed to take West's comments a bit further than what he said and used their own interpretation of what he meant as the basis for attempting to chastise him.

Here is part of the explanation given for demanding an apology:

...your subsequent statement that Representative Keith Ellison, one of your colleagues in the House of Representatives, is the “antithesis of the principles on which this country was established” because he is Muslim, shows a frightening lack of understanding for these values.

You will note that West did not even mention Islam when talking about Ellison's religion. Here is the short clip that prompted the original letter from the Interfaith apologists.



West has apparently decided to tell the coexist extremists to go pound sand with a letter of his own. It will be interesting to see if this is the final word on the matter because it should be. West clarifies that he didn't say Ellison represented the antithesis of America's principles because he is Muslim but because of his ties to CAIR. This is the money quote courtesy of Florida Independent:

“My comments in regards to my colleague, Representative Keith Ellison, are not about his Islamic faith, but about his continued support of CAIR.”

At this point the Coexisties have two options. They can either drop it (best option) or they can decide to double down by defending CAIR (worst option). We'll see if they want to be martyrs for a group that wants them under Sharia law.

Here is a copy of the letter West sent to the gaggle of religious leaders who felt he owed Islam an apology:


Letter From Allen West -

h/t Weasel Zippers