: Congressman Blames Muslims for Marriage Breakup

U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger is blaming the breakup of his 50-year marriage partly because of the stress of living near the offices of CAIR, a leading American Muslim advocacy group. Among other opinions revealed in an interview with the Charlotte Observer: the CAIR headquarters could “could blow the [US Capitol] up,” that the group is a “fund-raising arm” for Hezbollah, and that the women “wearing hoods” and unloading boxes outside the office warranted reports to the FBI. Ballenger’s “bizarre comments demonstrate the sheer lunacy of his political and religious views,” said Arsalan Iftikhar, the council’s legal affairs director. Not helping matters is Ballenger’s other statements of late: that African-American Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney stirred in him “a little bit of a segregationist feeling, and that “holier-than-thou Republicans” banning gifts from lobbyists destroyed “a social life for [congressional] wives” and made Washington “a lousy place to live.” Ballenger’s wife, Donna Davis, echoed his comments on CAIR’s headquarters. “It’s a very good location if you really wanted to raise trouble,” she said. But that’s where the agreement ends. The two have moved into separate homes in Charlotte.

Zahed Amanullah is associate editor of altmuslim.com.  He is based in London, England.