Tuesday Night’s Convention Benediction Shined Light on New Group

A number of evangelicals were taken aback Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention when Sajid Tarar—a Muslim—offered the evening’s benediction prayer.

Despite the evident uproar his appearance on the convention stage made, Tarar’s prayer for peace and an end to terrorism, however, shined a light on a new element in the 2016 election landscape. As founder of American Muslims for Trump, he has pitted himself squarely against the mainstream leaders of his religion.

As Charisma Caucus reported in January, Nihad Awad, the founder and executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called upon Muslims to register 1 million voters ahead of the November election. At last report, they were a fraction of the way to their goal, but the presence of Tarar’s group signals there may be vocal opposition to that effort.

The Pakistani-born U.S. citizen blames Islamists and “the liberal media” for much of the general animosity toward Muslims in America. He spoke earlier this year at a gathering of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump, a group of more than 50 representatives from dozens of minority communities in the United States established in April by Trump adviser Michael Cohen.

“I was part of the angry Americans who saw that traditional politicians, career politicians, legacy politics have failed America,” he said. “[Trump] is an outsider, has never been in political office before, has a self-funded campaign and never had some Ivy League staffer writing his speeches.

“Radical Islam is not only a threat to Western civilization, it is a threat to itself. I, as a Muslim, I am a victim. ISIS, Taliban, al-Qaida, they have killed more Muslims than anybody else.

“The California shooting happened and our immigration system failed to see it, to predict it. This current administration and Hillary Clinton want to bring Syrian refugees here. Why? Why don’t they go to the Muslim countries? Why don’t they go to Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia? Why do they want to cross the Atlantic and come all the way here?

“If somebody doesn’t agree with American values or doesn’t like the American lifestyle, they’ve got nothing to do here.”