Who is William Boykin?
William Boykin is executive vice president of the Family Research Council and a board member of the Oak Initiative. He was formerly the United States Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.
Southern Poverty Law Center labeled William Boykin as an anti-Muslim extremist and had designated Family Research Council as a hate group.
Anti-Muslim Activities
In 2011, Boykin asserted that “[Islam] should not be protected under the First Amendment,” that there should be “no mosques in America,” that Islam is a “totalitarian way of life,” and that there can be no interfaith dialogue or cooperation between Muslims and Christians.
On a panel discussion in Colorado covering “the threat to America,” Boykin said of Muslims: “They’re infiltrating every element of our society while we are trying to believe that there is a big separation between the radical Muslims and moderate Muslims. And the reality is, John [Guandolo] said it, the moderate Muslims are just simply Muslims who have chosen not to follow the teachings of the Quran and the hadith. And there are a lot of them, and God bless them, I wish that more of them would refuse to follow it.”
In 2003, then President Bush rebuked Boykin for his anti-Muslim stance. Writing in the New York Times on October 20, 2003, Brian Knowlton reported, “Boykin had said, among other things, that Muslims worship an ‘idol,’ not a ‘real God,’ and that America’s enemy in the fight with Islamic extremism was ‘a guy called Satan.’”
HuffPost reports that during a radio appearance in 2012 the host asked Boykin, “Isn’t there a city in Michigan that is almost 100 percent Muslim and operating under Sharia law now?” Boykin responded, “Dearborn, Michigan yes…if you walk down the streets you would think you’re in Beirut or Damascus or someplace.”
In 2013, Boykin warned, “If you are tied to the mainstream media you will never know anything about the true nature of Islam.”
Influence
The Family Research Council, called an “anti-LGBT hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, hosts an annual Values Voters summit. The group was deemed influential enough for the Vice President Mike Pence to make an appearance in 2018.
In the past, FRC President Tony Perkins claimed that “those who practice Islam in its entirety” should not be afforded the same constitutional protections as other Americans because Islam is “incompatible with the Constitution.” He also claims that “only 16 percent of Islam is a religion.” The Family Research Council has called for a ban on mosques. In a 2015 email, he wrote: “What most people either don’t realize or willfully ignore is that only 16 percent of Islam is a religion — the rest is a combination of military, judicial, economic, and political system. . .Sharia is not a religion in the context of the First Amendment.” (Family Research Council Email, December 2015)
