America’s largest Muslim advocacy organization urged President-elect Donald Trump to cut ties with a national security adviser the group described as an “anti-Islam conspiracy theorist.”
“Discredited conspiracy theorists like Frank Gaffney should not come within 100 miles of any administration that seeks to maintain credibility on the world stage or uphold longstanding American values of religious diversity and inclusion,” Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a statement Wednesday.
{mosads}“With these kinds of associations, President-elect Trump is dividing America at a time when we are most in need of unity.”
Reports emerged Tuesday that Trump’s transition team has added Gaffney as a national security adviser.
Gaffney, who served in the Pentagon under former President Ronald Reagan, is now a radio host and founder of the Center for Security Policy.
Reports added that Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and former Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) also joined Trump’s transition team alongside Gaffney. The trio was brought on after former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and lobbyist Michael Freedman were fired earlier this week.
Gaffney reportedly backed the theory that President Obama is Muslim and born outside the U.S. The former Reagan administration official has also insisted the government has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, describes Gaffney as “one of America’s most notorious Islamophobes.”
Gaffney told Breitbart News Daily the day after Trump’s White House win the billionaire should focus on curbing Muslim Brotherhood influence on the U.S. when he takes office, saying an early goal should be “stopping, designating, rolling up the Muslim Brotherhood in America as the terrorist organization it is.”
“It’s going to be vital to everything else he’s trying to do. We’ve got to stop taking counsel from them, direction from them, and allowing them to operate in our midst subversively, and that’s what’s been going on for some 50 years now,” he said.
Gaffney also served as a national security adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) before he exited the GOP presidential primary race.