During a recent interview on right-wing pundit Benny Johnson’s “The Benny Show,” U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, was asked what his message would be to any Democratic voters who might move from a blue state to Alabama if he were elected governor.
“Well don’t be expecting a free lunch… bring your lunch with you, because you’re not gonna be welcome if you bring that Communist, Islamic atmosphere with you. We’re not going to deal with it,” Tuberville replied.
In response, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR—the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization—slammed Tuberville’s comments as being “anti-Islam” and called on the governor hopeful to visit a mosque in Alabama.
“Senator Tuberville was elected to represent all Alabamans, including Alabaman Muslims. We invite Senator Tuberville to visit an Alabama mosque and engage with his Alabama Muslim constituents,” CAIR-AL Staff Attorney Britton O’Shields said in an official statement. “Although Senator Tuberville expressed fear about a so-called ‘Islamic atmosphere’ coming to Alabama, the truth is that American Muslims have been thriving in Alabama for decades, creating an atmosphere of fellowship, charity, and devotion to God.”
While much media attention has focused on rising antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks and the resulting Israeli invasion of Gaza, anti-Muslim sentiment and Islamophobia have also increased dramatically in the U.S. in the past two years. In 2024, CAIR reported 8,658 complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab incidents, the highest number since the group began compiling data in 1996, and a 7.4 percent increase from 2023.
According to the organization’s 2025 Civil Rights Report, viewpoint discrimination against individuals speaking out against genocide and apartheid in Gaza was a key factor in many such incidents. Tuberville himself has previously called for all student activists protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza to be jailed for expressing their right to free speech.
Additionally, despite its relatively small Muslim population, Alabama has not been a stranger to recent high-profile incidents of Islamophobia.
Just last year, an email was sent to the Masjid Baitul Haqq mosque in Mobile by an individual threatening to “shoot up” the mosque and “kill as many as possible” with an AR-10 rifle and a “remote access bomb.” While police reported that no evidence of a threat was discovered at the mosque at the time, CAIR called on law enforcement to launch a hate crime probe related to the incident.
O’Shields noted the incident in her response to Tuberville’s comments, ostensibly to warn the senator that Islamophobic rhetoric can have dangerous real-world consequences for Alabamians and the American Muslim community.
