John Kennedy accuses Muslim advocate of supporting terrorism

WASHINGTON: Arab American Institute Executive Director Maya Berry was badgered by Republican United States Senator John Kennedy in a senate hearing regarding hate incidents in the US on Wednesday.

“You support Hamas, do you not?” accused Kennedy, the GOP senator for Louisiana, to which Berry replied, “you asking the executive director of the Arab American Institute that question very much puts the focus on the issue of hate in our country.”

John Kennedy then accused Berry of supporting Hezbollah, before ending his verbal assault by saying “You should hide your head in a bag.”

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“Extraordinarily disappointing” was how Berry described the line of questioning after her continued denial of support for the aforementioned groups fell on deaf ears.

Rights advocates bashed Kennedy for his xenophobic comments. The Muslim American advocacy group Engage Action said “This harassment is alarming.” The Council on American Islamic Relations Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw stated that Kennedy’s comments which weaponized Berry’s racial identity were “absolutely reprehensible.”

Berry’s responses were praised and described as “powerful” by the Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee. 

Threats against American Muslims, Arabs and Jews have risen since the war in Gaza began. In recent months there was a fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Muslim boy in Illinois, an attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Muslim girl in Texas, a stabbing of a Muslim man in Texas, and the beating of a Muslim man in New York.

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There have been threats of violence against Jews at Cornell University and an unsuccessful plot to attack a New York City Jewish centre.