Washington, D.C., 12/30/2024) – The US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO) joined American Muslims in commemorating former President Jimmy Carter as a principled humanitarian who dedicated his post-presidency to pursuing social and international justice, including courageously and forthrightly warning the American public about the harmful influence of pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC and the Israeli government’s intent on entrenching a colonial apartheid state on Palestinian land. His 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” took an honest patriotic stand for America and for democracy in the world.
He candidly called the U.S. “Road Map for Peace” a sham that intended failure. He went on record, nearly alone among U.S. politicians at the time, to debunk the so-called Israeli “security wall” as an “imprisonment wall” to intern West Bank Palestinians.
Moreover, he stood alone among his political peers in the U.S. in unfailingly and publicly defending Islam and Muslims against a rising, politically motivated, systematic Islamophobia media campaign as a foil for promoting religious nationalism in American politics.
“I have been struck […] by the human and moral values which Americans as a people share with Islam,” he said as early as February 7, 1980.
In 2014, he courageously addressed an American Muslim convention in Detroit amid an avalanche of lobbying pressure and a media flood of personal character assassination in opposition to his visit.
Yet he remained undaunted in his defense of Muslims in America. In 2017, The Carter Center released this statement:
“Islamophobia is an affront to our common humanity and our constitutional principles. We urge political leaders and citizens to condemn violence, discrimination, and hate speech against those of the Muslim faith.”
We convey our sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of James Earl Carter, Jr., and to the American people who have lost a rarity in our politics – a former president who stood for the best interests of this nation and its stated values of freedom, justice, and democracy, regardless of outside political pressure to sell out those American values.
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