Muslim-American Republican Omar Qudrat, who is running for Congress in California’s 52nd congressional district, told Breitbart News Tonight on Tuesday evening that he supports President Donald Trump’s policies on immigration and terrorism.
“Radical Islamic terrorism is a real threat to our nation,” Qudrat said, adding that there was a “multi-component effort to try to undermine and destroy the United States and its allies.”
“That includes organizations that hold themselves out as advocacy groups,” Qudrat said, an evident reference to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
CAIR has been declared a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates and was named by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas-funding operation.
In his comments to Breitbart News Tonight, Qudrat criticized groups “that try to use our own laws against ourselves, and weaponize our Constitution against itself.”
He also said: “I am against sharia law. It is unconstitutional, period. It has no place in the United States. It has no place anywhere in the world.”
Qudrat, a former terrorism prosecutor who also serves as a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve, is taking on incumbent third-term Democrat Scott Peters, along with several other Republican candidates.
The district has, in the past, been considered a potential pickup for Republicans, and is rated D+6 by the Cook Partisan Voting Index. Only two candidates — likely Peters and one Republican — will qualify for the general election under the rules of California’s “top two” or “jungle” primary, to be held June 5th.
In his interview Tuesday evening, Qudrat endorsed building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as President Trump’s policy of suspending immigration from countries, including Muslim ones, whose residents could not be vetted for ties to terrorist organizations.
He also attacked Peters for being anti-Israel and voting for the Iran deal.
Qudrat has been endorsed by the San Diego County GOP, as well as by several incumbent Republican members of Congress.
He has, however, been opposed by some Tea Party groups, who object to the fact that Qudrat only recently moved to the San Diego area. (He was born and raised in Southern California, before attending law school at Syracuse, working in the Department of Defense, and serving overseas as a civilian legal adviser to U.S. forces in Afghanistan.)
Some of Qudrat’s opponents have accused him of taking donations from individuals associated with CAIR, but there appears to be no evidence to support that claim. In fact, Qudrat has previously criticized CAIR as being “led by somebody who openly supports terrorist networks.”
Breitbart News Tonight airs Monday through Friday from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named to Forward’s 50 “most influential” Jews in 2017. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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