A Washington, D.C.-based Islamic organization established by Muslim Brotherhood operatives contends the Trump administration is restoring the citizenship question to the U.S. Census in fulfillment of a "white supremacist agenda."
"This is yet another political move by the Trump administration to implement its white supremacist agenda and to drag our nation back to the false 'white paradise' of the 1950s," said the Council on American-Islamic Relations in a statement.
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The Commerce Department announced this week it will ask U.S. residents on the 2020 Census if they are American citizens.
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Asked at the daily press briefing Wednesday if people who refuse to answer the question will be fined, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she's "not aware of a mass campaign to fine people."
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"The goal is to have data that we can use for specific things, and we think that having accurate data is important," she said.
Huckabee said people "should follow the law and the law should be enforced."
The citizenship question, which was on the form from 1820 to 1950, is the target of a lawsuit against the Trump administration by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who asserts it is unconstitutional.
Much is at stake for states with large populations of illegal aliens, such as California, New York and Florida.
With congressional redistricting based on citizens rather than residents, the states could lose seats in the House of Representatives along with federal funding.
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In its statement, CAIR – which, despite it's radical origins, had a role during the Obama administration in shaping national security policy – said it's "inevitable given the current environment that immigrants and their extended community networks will perceive this move as targeting them and their families for government action – including detention and deportation – thereby decreasing minority participation in the census."
"By discouraging minority participation, the administration clearly seeks to maintain its falling support outside of its largely monochrome base," CAIR said.
While CAIR regards itself as a civil-rights organization, according to evidence entered in a terror-financing case, it was founded by figures associated with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, the worldwide movement that has stated its intent to transform the U.S. into an Islamic state. More than a dozen CAIR leaders have been charged or convicted of terrorism-related crimes.
CAIR has sued the authors of a WND Books expose, "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," which documented the group's Islamic supremacist agenda.
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The organization – named by the Justice Department as an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror-funding case and designated a terrorist organization by an Arab Gulf state – said the Trump administration's "politicization of the census could have a long term negative impact on voting rights and on the distribution of federal funding for health care, education and community development."
CAIR claimed "it has witnessed an unprecedented spike in bigotry targeting American Muslims, immigrants and members of other minority groups since the election of Donald Trump as president."
The Islamic group noted it it also has "repeatedly expressed concern about Islamophobic and white supremacist Trump administration policies and appointments."
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One of its latest complaints was against Trump's nomination of Mike Pompeo as secretary of state.
Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR's Michigan chapter, called Pompeo a "conspiracy theorist and a known anti-Muslim bigot" for his association with the popular grassroots organization ACT for America.
In 2016, Pompeo co-sponsored a bill urging the State Department to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation.
Walid charged that Pompeo's concern about the Muslim Brotherhood is not so much about the organization founded in Egypt as it is "a dog whistle to talk about the Muslim community and to deprive American Muslims of their civil liberties."
As WND has reported, the Muslim Brotherhood's motto is: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope. [Allah is greater!]."
Walid said the kind of people Trump has chosen for his administration reflects his "xenophobia" and lack of regard for the American Constitution.