Muslim advocacy group pens open letter to Iowans

Twenty-five thousand Iowans will receive a letter from the Muslim Public Affairs Council on Friday asking them to reject divisive and discriminatory rhetoric as they head to Monday’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses.

The council, which calls itself the nation’s largest advocacy organization for American Muslims, is bundling the open letter with 25,000 copies of The Des Moines Register on Friday. It'll appear in papers delivered to Johnston, Grimes, Urbandale, Waukee, West Des Moines, Clive and the west and south sides of Des Moines.

“We understand that our country faces great challenges today, but we also know we are at our best when we are united and at our worst when we turn on one another,” the letter reads in part. “Candidates who promote divisiveness among our population would have us forget that our great American experiment, as put forth by our Founding Fathers, is based on us being an inclusive nation working together and building upon the ideas and values established in our Constitution: freedom, pluralism and democracy.”

The letter doesn’t mention any presidential candidates by name, but the message clearly alludes to remarks and policy proposals offered in recent months by Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who has said, among other controversial statements, that Muslims should be banned from entering the country.

The objective of the letter, said council spokeswoman Rabiah Ahmed, is to emphasize the values Americans share regardless of their religious beliefs.

“This is a sincere attempt to reach out to the Iowa voters and remind them that policies such as building walls and closing borders, these are all policies reflective of some of the most regrettable times in history,” she said. “We don’t want to go back to that. We want a vision that moves our country forward.”