Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Anti-Defamation League Slams Lawmaker Who Asked For Pledge From Muslim Visitors

The Anti-Defamation League condemned a Texas lawmaker who instructed her staff to greet Muslim visitors with an Israeli flag and a request to pledge allegiance to the United States.

Molly White, a Republican state representative, was absent on Thursday, Muslim Capitol Day, organized by the local Council on American-Islamic Relations chapter. But she said in a Facebook posting that she had left an Israeli flag on her reception desk and instructed staffers “to ask representatives from the Muslim community to renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws.”

Renee Lafair, the ADL’s Austin-based regional director, said in a statement that the organization was “shocked and outraged” by White’s statements.

“Representative White represents everyone in her district, regardless of their race, religion, or political beliefs,” Lafair said.

“Access to elected officials is core to American democracy and should be celebrated, not impeded,” she said. “There should be no patriotism test in order to meet with your representative.”

“Shutting the door on constituents and this kind of rhetoric and bigotry is antithetical to our cherished American values,” she said.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.