Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I wish to speak on S. 994, the Protecting Religiously Affiliated Institutions Act of 2018. First, I want to thank Senator Hatch and the other supporters of the bill. In particular, I would also like to thank the House sponsors of the bill, Representatives Kustoff and Kilmer, for their work in shepherding it through that chamber. I am glad to see this bill finally enacted into law. Early last year, a string of bomb threats to synagogues, mosques, and other religious affiliated institutions, such as Jewish community centers, threatened this Nation and one of its core constitutional tenants: the free exercise of religion. In the wake of these threats, the Judiciary Committee held a hearing on religious hate crimes. Just 1 month after that hearing, two Islamic centers in northern California were attacked during Ramadan. At the largest Sacramento mosque, a burned Quran was also filled with bacon and handcuffed to a fence. That mosque alone has been targeted multiple times. Despicable acts like these have become far too common. The statistics are startling. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, from 2014 to 2016, anti-Muslim hate crimes increased 99.4 percent, from 154 reported incidents to 307 reported incidents. There has also been a rise in anti-Semitic incidents. The Anti-Defamation League reported 1,986 anti-Semitic incidents nationally in 2017, compared to 942 in 2015, an increase of 110 percent.…”