CONCORD, N.H. — A Muslim civil rights group says a campaign flier targeting U.S. Senate candidate Maggie Hassan associates Muslims with violence and exploits her “Arab and Muslim-sounding name,” though similar mailers are targeting candidates in other states and Hassan’s last name has Irish roots.
The flier sent by the advocacy group One Nation shows a family in a weapon’s crosshairs and highlights Hassan’s support of last year’s deal to curtail Iran’s nuclear program. It reads, “Radical Islamic terrorists are knocking at our door … and Maggie Hassan’s bad judgment could put our families at risk.”
Hassan, a Democrat currently serving as New Hampshire’s governor, is in a tight Senate race with Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte that could help decide control of the U.S. Senate. Her last name is pronounced HAS’-uhn but is sometimes mispronounced as hah-SAHN’.
The Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has condemned the ad.
“The mailing intentionally invokes the specter of terrorism and associates Muslims with violence against civilians in a clear attempt to sway voters using Islamophobia,” director John Robbins said. “This group is obviously exploiting both the candidate’s Arab and Muslim-sounding name and the growing Islamophobic sentiment in our nation.”
