This week, educator and independent U.S. Senate candidate Craig Jelks visited the Islamic Academy of Alabama, IAA, an Islamic K-12 private school in Homewood. Jelks’ visit to the academy comes following a campaign of anti-Muslim hate, spearheaded by U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, which led the school to cancel its planned relocation to Hoover over safety concerns.
In an exclusive interview with APR, Jelks said that he was inspired to visit IAA to dispel the misinformation being spread by Tuberville and other members of the GOP.
“Tommy Tuberville accused the Islamic Academy of Alabama of teaching Sharia law,” Jelks told APR. “I visited the school today and can say firsthand that this claim is completely false. I observed students actively engaged in learning and teachers carrying out their work with dedication and professionalism. With nearly two decades of experience as an educator, including being named Mountain Brook’s 2024 Secondary Teacher of the Year, I can say with confidence that IAA is a normal school and there is nothing to fear.”
Jelks said that he has been “alarmed” by Tuberville’s increasingly bigoted rhetoric, which often “paints entire communities with a broad brush, rather than focusing on the values that unite us as Alabamians and Americans.”
“As I seek his seat in the U.S. Senate, my campaign will offer a clear contrast between his politics of division and my commitment to bringing people together,” Jelks continued. “I believe leadership is about showing up, listening, and representing all people with respect, no matter their background or beliefs.”
Jelks went on to say that he believes Tuberville’s recent campaign against “Sharia law”—which has seen the senator propose multiple pieces of legislation to ban the body of Islamic law and standards in the U.S.—is simply an avenue for espousing broader Islamophobic bigotry.
“Politicians like Tuberville thrive on fear,” Jelks said. “His formula for helping Alabama is to repeatedly say ‘radical left,’ ‘woke,’ and ‘DEI’ with absolutely no solutions. Well, he’s updated his playbook to include fear of Islam. He’s a remarkably ignorant man who won his Senate seat off of name recognition. Well, I will win off of merit. I’m excited as more and more people learn about our campaign and realize that they are regular people with no party allegiance seeking to push our state forward.”
Tuberville is not the only prominent Republican to have engaged in high-profile anti-Muslim rhetoric as of late.
U.S. Representative Andy Ogles, R-Tennessee, recently faced controversy for a social media post in which he wrote that “Muslims don’t belong in American society” and that “pluralism is a lie.” And just this week, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen attacked fellow lieutenant governor hopeful John Wahl for attending an interfaith event that included Muslims.
“You will never find me in an Islamic Center or a mosque,” Allen wrote in a public statement. “I am a committed Christian. I want no part in Islam and the vast majority of Republicans in this state and across this country agree with me.”
Jelks told APR that he finds the normalization of Islamophobia within the Republican party “alarming.”
“It is alarming, and the problem is that there is no rank and file correction,” Jelks said. “There is no one in the Republican Party that’s calling them out on this divisiveness. But again, I say from firsthand experience, Islam is nothing to fear.”
“I always want to bring people, especially politicians, back to the Constitution,” he continued. “The Constitution, specifically the First Amendment, highlights freedom of religion. Freedom of religion means just that: you get to choose your religion. You can be Christian, you can be Muslim, you can be Jewish. It’s freedom of religion and no politician should use freedom of religion as a divisive tool, which we see politicians are doing now.”
In December, former U.S. Senator Doug Jones—Tuberville’s leading Democratic opponent in the 2026 governor’s race—told APR that he viewed the senator’s anti-Muslim comments not as part of a deliberate campaign strategy but as a reflection of his true beliefs.
“I think that he has that kind of religious bigotry and he just hasn’t had the opportunity to say it,” Jones said at the time.
Jelks, on the other hand, said he believes that Tuberville’s open Islamophobia is both part of his gubernatorial campaign strategy and a reflection of his true character.
“I think it is a reflection of his true character, and I believe part of his true character is winning at all costs,” Jelks explained. “I think part of his true character is ignorance. I think part of his true character is divisiveness. And he’s using that as a campaign strategy because I think he believes it will help him win.”
“Unfortunately, there are elements in politics that show divisiveness brings attention, and attention brings media coverage. Media coverage gives you more name recognition, and it could possibly lead to victory,” he added. “Again, I believe that he won his Senate seat off of name recognition, not merit. And so, to answer your question, I think it’s a combination of both. It is the intentional campaign strategy, but I think it’s also part of his character. I believe that’s who he truly is. And I hope the people of Alabama see who he really is as a foolish person, not a very intelligent person, and we don’t need anyone like that representing us, certainly not in Washington and not in Montgomery.”
Additionally, Jelks argued that the Trump administration’s current war in Iran has allowed for the further normalization of Islamophobia within the Republican party, contrasting Trump’s failure to condemn bigotry within his own party amidst an ongoing military operation in the Middle East with George W. Bush’s call for religious tolerance following the Sept. 11 attacks.
“So we’ve seen this script before during 9/11 when you had some people that used the religion of Islam in an evil manner,” Jelks said. “At that time, the current president, George W. Bush, took the leadership role to tell the American people it is silly to castigate an entire religion based on the acts of a few people. We do not see that kind of leadership coming out of the White House, and that’s unfortunate.”
Jelks said that he is personally opposed to the war in Iran, arguing that the foreign military operation distracts from the struggles facing Alabamians and Americans at home.
“We should not be in the country of Iran,” Jelks stated. “We are overly focused on foreign affairs when we should be keen on domestic affairs. The people of Alabama are concerned about groceries. They’re concerned about health care. They’re concerned about education. But now foreign affairs have become a distraction. And so now there’s more on our plate when it comes to gas prices.”
“I think the United States is seen now as the bully of the world, given what has happened in Venezuela, what has been suggested that could possibly happen in Cuba, our desire to take over Greenland,” he continued. “We’re losing the moral high ground as Americans under the current administration.”
Jelks also told APR that if he were a current member of the U.S. Senate he would vote in favor of a war powers resolution to pause all military intervention in Iran until the Trump administration receives formal congressional authorization. Both Tuberville and U.S. Senator Katie Britt, R-Alabama, have voted against all three war powers resolutions that have been brought before the Senate since the Trump administration first struck Iran on February 28.
“Yes, I would pause all military intervention,” Jelks said. “The United States Constitution gives that power to Congress and we need some senators with backbone to stand up to the president, someone who’s able to speak truth to power, someone who’s able to say, ‘hold on, Mr. President. Let’s think this through, Mr. President.’ But Washington is so divided by way of partisanship, I don’t expect anything less from Britt or Tuberville than to follow the president blindly.”
As an independent, Jelks will face off against the winners of May’s Republican and Democratic primary elections in the November general election to determine Alabama’s next U.S. senator. Both major party fields are crowded ahead of the primaries, with five Republicans and four Democrats currently in the race.
