State Rep. Passes Out Questionnaires Before Allowing Muslim Constituents Entry Into Office

A state representative is accused again of Islamophobia after it was discovered he was handing out a quiz to Muslim constituents before allowing them into his office.

In a video on Facebook recorded on Thursday, the director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Oklahoma, Adam Soltani, said Muslim students from Tulsa’s Peace Academy had been given the questionnaire and were being turned away on the day set aside to celebrate their faith at the Capitol.

“Rep. John Bennett, who in my opinion doesn't even deserve to be a representative at this point, is refusing to meet with Muslims unless they answered questions from an anti-Muslimism hate group,” Soltani said in the video.

In an email to the Tulsa World, Bennett confirmed he handed the questionnaire to three Muslim students.

The list included questions like whether Muslims agree with the killing of Christians, whether pedophilia is acceptable and even asking directly "Do you beat your wife?"

The list is from the group ACT for America which is considered an anti-Islam extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and an anti-Muslim bigotry group by the Anti-Defamation League.

Questions including why Bennett felt the need to hand out the questionnaire, whether he knew of the extremist designation by the SPLC and whether he was a member of ACT for America, were not responded to within 24 hours. The SPLC calls it the “largest grassroots anti-Muslim” group in the country. The organization itself boasts a membership of 400,000 members.

Bennett defended the letter in several long posts on his wife's Facebook page citing passages from the Quran, writing "Wife Beating - Good Enough for Muhammed, Good Enough for You" and criticizing who he called "Muslim apologists"

His wife also engaged in the controversy on another similar post telling a commenter to "bring it on" after they suggested voters against her husband talk to constituents in his district.

This isn't the Representative's first time being accused of Islamophobia, in 2014 he called the religion followed by more than a billion "a cancer" and just the past year he brought in members of known hate and bigotry groups to testify in favor of an anti-Muslim bill.