With G-d's Name, The Merciful Benefactor, The Merciful Redeemer

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations is condemning Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz and his staff for refusing to meet them during Monday's National Muslim Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill.

More than 300 Muslim-American delegates are in Washington to meet with one-third of U.S. House members and nearly half of all senators, according to the USCMO, which organized it.

Although Cruz was in New York, campaigning in advance of today's presidential primaries in that state, a group of 14 Muslim Texans marking “National Muslim Advocacy Day” went to the candidate’s Washington office.

We knew the senator was out of town, said U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations Secretary General Oussama Jammal, but would have been happy to meet with a member of his staff.

“We are quite disappointed to see a presidential candidate refuse to meet with constituents from his own state,” Jammal said. “This is a sad day for America.”

Alia Salem, executive director of the DFW chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said her group tried unsuccessfully for weeks to schedule time with Cruz's staff ahead of its visit to Washington this week. More than 300 members of the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, a coalition of American Muslim advocacy groups, are in Washington to meet with members of Congress.

He said Cruz, who has offended Muslims with his call for surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods, could have used the opportunity to show that he can represent all Americans.

"We traveled all the way from North Texas to come and meet with our elected officials. I know they have things they have to do, but what I'm concerned about is the complete and utter shutdown, not finding one legislative aide to meet with us," she said.

"This is indicative of what a Cruz presidency would look like," she later said during a press conference on Capitol Hill on Monday. "He has made clear in the media what he thinks about Muslims, how he plans to treat them, and today in his day job, he exhibited no less."

Cruz's Senate staff did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The senator is in Maryland today, having wrapped up campaign events in New York ahead of a primary there set for Tuesday.  Maryland is among the states holding primaries on April 26.

Cruz's staff initially offered to set up a meeting with a Middle East foreign policy adviser, Salem said. She declined that meeting because, as Muslim Americans, the group wanted to discuss issues affecting Americans, she said. She asked to speak with another staffer to no avail.

By comparison, Salem and 13 other Dallas-area members were granted a meeting with Congressman Joe Barton, R-Arlington, and with staffers from Republican Sen. John Cornyn's office, among others. No other Texas official declined to schedule a meeting, Salem said. 

The meeting would have come just weeks after Cruz called for a security crackdown in Muslim neighborhoods, following ISIS-perpetrated attacks in a Brussels airport and subway on March 22.  

"Our European allies are now seeing what comes of a toxic mix of migrants who have been infiltrated by terrorists and isolated, radical Muslim neighborhoods," Cruz said in a written statement issued by his campaign. "We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized."

His remarks drew sharp rebuke from President Barack Obama,New York officials, civil libertarians and American Muslims, including the national CAIR office, the country's largest Muslim advocacy group. The Anti-Defamation League, a major Jewish group, also condemned the policy.

Mustafaa Carroll, another CAIR member from Texas, said he has previously met with Cruz. The senator met with Muslim groups in 2014 and 2015, Salem said.

The group also noted Cruz recently hired Frank Gaffney as a foreign policy adviser. Gaffney, the president of the Center for Security Policy, has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a "notorious Islamophobe."  

On Monday, Gaffney denounced the advocacy event as "working to advance the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States" in an editorial published in The Hill. 

Nihad Awad, executive director and co-founder of the national CAIR board, said he hopes today was just an "accident."

"The feeling I'm getting is maybe this is the election season" in which some are "targeting American Muslims for cheap political points," Awad said. "If he wants to be president, he has to show presidential conduct."

Sen. Cruz’s press office did not respond immediately to questions about the USCMO’s charge.

The USMCO said its delegates talked to members of Congress about religious hate, concerns over the federal Countering Violence Extremism program, promoting access to healthy food in impoverished areas and other planks in the group’s domestic agenda.

The USCMO’s founding members are: The Mosque Cares (Ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), Muslim American Society (MAS), Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA), American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).

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