It’s hard to know where to begin on this one.

Surely the organizers knew that the name itself — Texas Muslim Capitol Day — would bring out anti-Islam demonstrators on January 29, 2015, (and it did).

What wasn’t foreseeable, however, was the astonishing response of Molly White, a Republican legislator from Belton, Texas, who not only planted an Israeli flag on her desk to greet visitors, but also gave “instructions to staff to ask representatives from the Muslim community to renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws”. (This message also was posted on Facebook, just in case you missed visiting her office.)

Comments questioned everything about the action, including the Israeli flag. Self-described Muslims, Jews and Christians called her out (typical response: “How dare you use an Israeli flag as a tool in your racist attack on Muslims?”).

Ms. White’s response was definitely unworthy of one sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

I will concede that perhaps the organizers erred in labeling the day (when’s Texas Mormon Capitol Day?), but the day’s been celebrated without such a bigoted response from a legislator since 2003.

You can read more about the whole kerfuffle at the Huffington Post, Texas Tribune, Yahoo News and Politico.

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