Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott, assigned the Glen Casada and Justin Jones case, has reportedly stirred up controversy of his own by criticizing the Islamic religion on Facebook.
This, according to several news outlets, who also reported that the Council on American-Islamic Relations wants Northcott to resign. CAIR also reportedly wants the Tennessee Republican Party to “repudiate” him over the posts.
Northcott did not return The Tennessee Star’s requests for comment.
In a Facebook post Saturday, however, Northcott said he will not resign.
“Thank you to everyone for the outpouring of support that you have shown me over the past couple of days. It has been truly humbling. I am honored to serve as your District Attorney. Rest assured, I am not resigning,” Northcott wrote.
“If they figured I would apologize for calling hate in any form evil, they miscalculated. If they expect me to denounce my faith because of their tactics, they are going to be disappointed.”
Members of the Tennessee Republican Party’s Nashville-based headquarters did not return our repeated requests for comment.
CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper told The Tennessee Star Friday that members of his group called for Northcott’s resignation, despite only learning about his Facebook posts earlier that day.
“I think it is clear that anyone who holds such un-American views shouldn’t be in a position to impact people’s lives through the law enforcement system,” Hooper said.
The Star asked what CAIR plans to do if Northcott does not resign.
“Well, we would have to reevaluate, but I think it is also up to the people of Tennessee, Muslims and people of all faiths, to really speak out and say this isn’t acceptable, that someone would be in a position of such power and authority over the lives of others and have these extremist, un-American, unconstitutional views.”
According to the Nashville-based WSMV, Northcott posted what the station called “multiple anti-Islam remarks” on Easter weekend.
“The original post, first surfaced by TNHoller, was from Daniel Berry, a candidate for Tullahoma Alderman. Berry asked, ‘Is it ever acceptable to stereotype an entire group who all have mixed beliefs versus letting each individual be judged based on their own actions?’” the station reported.
“The question quickly resulted in over 100 comments, including many from DA Northcott.”
According to the station, Northcott wrote the following:
“Their belief system is evil, violent, and against God’s Truth,” Northcott said of Muslims in his first comment.
“They are not evil because of their gender, skin color or country of origin. Instead, they are evil because they profess a commitment to an evil belief system,” Northcott wrote.
In the same comment thread, Northcott later wrote that ‘There are no Constitutional rights. There are God given rights protected by the Constitution.’”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Who is he to not do his job fairly & unbiased to give justice to any & everyone regardless of His or Their beliefs or lifestyles , I fall in 1 of those categories, I am a law abiding citizen, I pay taxes which pays his salary!!! What about separation of church & state ? He is obviously prejudiced & should RESIGN & ASK FOR FORGIVENESS FROM THE PEOPLE HE IS PAID TO SERVE!!!!!!
Should we give credibility to the people who blew up the World Trade Center, and cut people’s heads off on camera?.
Should we really be answering to a terrorist front group such as CAIR with their muslim brotherhood ties? Unindicted coconspirators in the Holy Land crap that went on several years ago? No!
If he printed anti-Muslim hate messages, he should resign. A prosecutor and attorney general need to have integrity and the ability to be even-handed. He’s like the unethical prosecutor who withholds or falsifies evidence to railroad an innocent person to jail, just so the prosecutor can look “tough” on crime. To condemn all Muslims for the acts of just a few is just like lumping all blacks as criminals just because of a few blacks who do commit crime. Even more to the point, condemning all Muslims is like condemning all white protestants just for the acts of a small minority of white protestants who commit violent crimes.