The Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, is once again asking U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, to visit with Alabama’s Muslim community.
The civil rights organization reiterated that Tuberville has an open invitation to visit a mosque in the state after the senator posted “The enemy is inside the gates” in reaction to New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, being sworn in using a Quran late last week.
“Sen. Tuberville’s rhetoric continues to demonize millions of peaceful, patriotic American Muslims simply because of their faith. Suggesting that a Muslim public servant taking an oath on the Quran represents an ‘enemy’ is dangerous, irresponsible and beneath the dignity of the office he holds,” said Britton O’Shields, the staff attorney for CAIR’s Alabama chapter.
“The Alabama Muslim community’s invitation to Sen. Tuberville remains open,” O’Shields continued. “We urge him to visit an Alabama mosque, meet Muslim families in his own state and learn firsthand that Muslims are not a threat. They are an integral part of the American story.”
In December, CAIR took the unprecedented step of designating Tuberville an “anti-Muslim extremist” for previous comments the senator had made in which he claimed that Islam “is not a religion” but a “cult” and that “Islamists aren’t here to assimilate. They’re here to conquer.”
Tuberville has also called for the deportation of all American Muslims and engaged in a recent campaign of anti-Muslim hate that led the Islamic Academy of Alabama, an Islamic K-12 private school, to cancel its planned relocation from Homewood to Hoover over safety concerns.
Tuberville’s Democratic opponent in the Alabama Governor’s race, former U.S. Senator Doug Jones, has also slammed the senator’s Islamophobic rhetoric, stating that Tuberville has “religious bigotry running through [his] blood.”
Despite the growing criticism, Tuberville has yet to respond to CAIR’s request that he meet with the Alabama Muslim community ahead of the 2026 gubernatorial election.
