By now we should be used to ridiculous actions by Republican candidate for California Governor Tim Donnelly. But he reached a new low when he posted on Facebook Monday:
BREAKING: Neel Kashkari supported the United States submitting to the Islamic, Shariah banking code in 2008 when he ran TARP.Shariah is “the seditious religio-political-legal code authoritative Islam seeks to impose worldwide under a global theocracy.”
This revelation is spreading fast, as people like Anita Gunn refer to Mr. Kashkari’s support of Shariah an “October Surprise.”
Donnelly was confronted on the air by Aaron McLear, a political adviser to Kashkari. “It sounds like the assemblyman is once again a bit confused about the truth, and so I thought it’d be helpful to educate him on exactly what’s going on,” McLear said. “Neel Kashkari, first of all, is a Hindu, not a Muslim, as Mr. Donnelly is trying to insinuate.” (Source: Fresno Bee)
McLear said of Donnelly, “He tweeted, he tweeted, he directly accused Neel Kashkari of submitting to Sharia law. That’s a big accusation. What actually happened was Neel was teaching Islamic bankers how to promote free market principles in Islamic societies under Sharia law, so it was actually the exact opposite.” (Source: Sacramento Bee)
GOP activist Eli Rubenstein of San Diego sent a letter to the Donnelly campaign responding to Donnelly’s bone-headed attack: “I’d say it was a thinly veiled racist attack, but the fact is, it’s more than that. … Anybody with brains knows that you’re using the fact that Neel has darker skin and a name that sounds like it could be middle-eastern to scare uninformed voters and rally your base. I’m a proud Republican, and if you’re the nominee, I will be enthusiastically supporting [Democratic Gov.] Jerry Brown for re-election.” (Source: OC Weekly)
Kashkari, a former Treasury official, called the attack “absurd on its face.” “To accuse me of trying to promote sharia law in America is absurd, literally the exact opposite of the purpose of the conference, which was to show how American free-market principles could be brought into Islamic countries,” he said. “Once again, it demonstrates he doesn’t understand the most basic elements of what he’s talking about,” he said. (Source: L.A. Times)
No one should be surprised by Donnelly’s behavior. Donnelly, a founder of the California Minutemen, is an embarrassment to the California Republican Party. He remains on probation for trying to carry a gun onto an airplane.