Marie-Athena Papathanasiou

What happened in America is what Islamists call “Ballot-Box Jihad.” Muslim Brotherhood mosques in Michigan and elsewhere urged people to vote for candidates because they were Muslim, not because of their policies, qualifications, or whether they were Democrats or Republicans. This is where democracy becomes dangerously vulnerable: when the religious authority of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood is used to dictate political loyalty, the ballot box risks becoming an extension of the pulpit. Islamists decided who would represent you in Congress. The long voting lines of Muslim women and men: what should have been a celebration of democratic freedom was instead a religious Islamist mobilization. Those voters were pressured with a cruel message: vote for Abdul El-Sayed or risk being branded a traitor to your faith. When a vote becomes a religious obligation, democracy loses its freedom. When a mosque dictates political allegiance, conscience becomes a hostage. America was built on freedom of religion, not freedom for Islamist jihadists to command the ballot box. A democracy must protect the right to worship God and, equally, the right to vote without fearing those who claim to speak for Him.