GOP Group Warns Supporters And Police That Muslims Are ‘Infiltrating’ Idaho

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A Republican newsletter in Bonneville County, Idaho warned that Muslims were “infiltrating” the state and urged readers to put pressure on law enforcement to investigate Muslims, the Post Register newspaper reported on Thursday.

In the Bonneville County Republican Central Committee newsletter, obtained by the paper, readers were told the Muslims were “ready to rise up and kill” non-Muslims. The newsletter article, entitled “Islam in Idaho,” reportedly also said Muslims were “two-faced” and sought to create the illusion that they had good intentions.

Bonneville GOP executive director Becky Prestwich admitted to the Statesman that she’d written the unsigned newsletter, which encouraged citizens of the eastern Idaho county to “demand that our lawmakers and law enforcers pay attention and ascertain whether or not there is a potential threat.” The article also carried a foreboding warning: “Please, don’t wait until something bad happens.”

Prestwich reportedly told the paper that she should have specified that the warnings and suggestions referred to radical Muslims, not all Muslims. She also told the paper that, in her estimation, 10 percent of all Muslims are radical.

The article appeared below a photo of Bonneville GOP chairman Doyle Beck who, according to the paper, was “in Texas in a helicopter” and could not be reached for comment on the newsletter.

This post has been updated to reflect that the story was originally reported by the Post Register newspaper.

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