Religious Right Leaders Endorse Trump's Call to Halt Muslim Immigration

Two American Family Association leaders, one active and the other a former colleague, used their AFA radio shows to back Donald Trump's controversial proposal that all Muslims should be banned from entering the United States, reported Right Wing Watch. According to RWW, Bryan Fischer even went so far as to suggest taxpayers fund the relocation of American citizens who are followers of Islam to the "Muslim world."

After House Speaker Paul Ryan, former vice president Dick Cheney and other top Republican officials criticized the presidential candidate's statements, Sandy Rios, AFA's director of governmental affairs, announced her support of Trump's position on a radio program she hosts for the organization. While religious right organizations and leaders have been pushing "religious freedom" laws across the country as a backlash against the Supreme Court's pro-marriage equality decision, Rios says that banning a group of people based on their religion wouldn't violate their freedom:

"Islam is a political system, it is tiny bit the worship of Allah and a whole lot a political system, much like communism," she said on the show, adding that Muslims are "enemies of your country and of the Christian faith who are bound and determined to murder and destroy and to subjugate you."

Rios told her listeners that Trump's proposal was "common sense," telling listeners, "Donald Trump, as far I'm concerned, is right. Until Congress can figure it out, we should have a moratorium on bringing more Muslims into the country."

Fischer, the former Director of Issues Analysis for the AFA who still blogs and hosts a show for the antigay organization, took things one step further when he told his radio listeners that America should pay Muslims to move out of the country, even if they are U.S. citizens. Fischer has called for a ban on Muslim immigration for years.

"Let's use American resources to help these people find a home in the Muslim world. I suggest that we assist Muslims in America with repatriation costs," Fischer said on his show. "Let's help them find a home in the Muslim world. They can live in a place that shares the values, that shares their religious principles, that shares their religious practice, that shares their cultural customs. They can be at home, don't have to chafe against our religious liberty, don't have to chafe against our Judeo-Christian values system. They can be at home and I believe we ought to be content to use our resources to help them get there."

Watch and listen below as Rios and Fischer do their part to propagate religious discrimination.

Sandy Rios

Bryan Fischer