A rabbi running for the U.S. Senate told a cheering audience, “I am an Islamaphobe and everything we need to know about Islam, we learned on 9/11.”
Rabbi Nachum Shifren, aka the Surfing Rabbi, a Lubavitcher, was invited along with all the other candidates for the U.S. Senate from California, to a candidate’s forum on May 3 at the American Legion Hall in San Mateo, co-sponsored by the San Mateo County Republican Party and My Liberty, a local Tea Party group.
Afterwards, when asked directly by local reporters, Shifren responded: “Did I say that?”
Shifren’s declaration, that he is an “Islamaphobe,” and the rest of his speech at the Tea Party party has been called racist and hateful by the state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Shifren said CAIR are racist themselves.
CAIR, along with Jewish Voice for Peace and Progressive Christians Uniting released a joint statement Monday about the rabbi’s comments.
“There should be no place for hate speech of any kind in our nation’s political discourse. Whenever one faith or ethnicity is targeted by hate, it is our duty as Americans to challenge that hatred and to instead promote mutual understanding and tolerance,” the three groups wrote in a statement.
But if you’re not surprised by the fact that CAIR and some “peaceful” Christians and Jews are hating on Rabbi Shifren, you should know that his blatant speech was rejected by even a roam-free bunch like the Tea Party.
Leonard Stone, the Tea Party moderator of the event, was almost as critical of the surfer rabbi as the folks on the Left. Stone said Shifren’s comments about serving in the military turned him off even before he made the “Islamaphobe” comment.
“I don’t support him. He’s not a viable candidate,” Stone said.
Read the whole thing in “Rabbi’s speech called hateful,” by Bill Silverfarb in the Daily Journal.